What happens in "failure of attention?"A lot of things are getting automated these days and it’s no longer limited to factories and industries. Automation now also allows us to control our home’s air conditioning units, lights, and appliances. It’s a good thing for sure, especially for those who benefit from them the most like the elderly and the disabled. However, automation is a double-edged sword and over-reliance on it can lead to dire results. In worst-case scenarios, failure of attention can lead to death as was the case of Air France Flight 447 which crashed into the Atlantic Ocean in 2009. Cognitive TunnelingWhen things are automated, our brains don’t have to monitor our environment. David Strayer, a cognitive psychologist at the University of Utah, likens this scenario to the dimming of a spotlight representative of the brain’s attention span. Strayer says this spotlight can go "wide and diffused, or tight and focused." When an emergency strikes that spotlight goes fully bright all of a sudden and gets confused on where to focus so it shines on what’s directly in front of it.For instance, when a plane on autopilot suddenly requires pilots to fly it manually, pilots need to abruptly switch their focus from a relatively relaxed state to that of panicked focus. Failure to transition from the former to the latter state results in cognitive tunneling, a "mental glitch" caused by automation.Cognitive tunneling then is misplaced focus. But is there a way to fix this? How can we correct mental glitch? Mental Models and StoriesAn example that’s often cited about how cognitive tunneling can be avoided is Qantas Flight 32. The flight experienced an uncontained engine failure—21 of its 22 aircraft systems were damaged. Despite this, all the crew and passengers arrived safely on the ground after an emergency landing at Singapore’s Changi Airport. It’s been called "the most damaged Airbus A380 ever to land safely." It was a very serious incidence but one that was definitely handled very well. How did the pilot and crew do it? One thing: Before each flight, Captain Richard de Crespigny would brief the crew on possible problems and what to do. In other words, the captain was drilling mental models during each pre-flight session so that when an emergency situation does arise, all of them would be ready; each member of the team would know what to do. Whether we realize it or not, we tell ourselves stories all the time. These mental images provide our cerebral spotlights something to focus on, "always jumping around inside our heads." As a result, these spotlights don’t dim. When we need to transition from relaxed to panicked states, we are not blinded by the glare, explains Charles Duhigg, a Pulitzer prize-winning reporter at the New York Times. Mental Models and Learning DesignDesigners and trainers can take advantage of the principles of mental models in their workshops and courses by asking story questions. The best type of questions to ask are open-ended queries."What if this happened to me? What would I do?""How did it happen and why?"Open-ended questions help learners to delve deeper into each story or event by placing themselves in it. These questions aid learners in creating mental images about the unfolding event and what would happen if they go with solution A or solution B and so on.Revisiting mental models also advances learners’ experience since the brain doesn’t seem to differentiate between reality and imagination. Mental models have been helping agents of the U.S. Department of State create alternate realities to better handle real-life events.ConclusionsStories are very useful for more than just entertaining or sharing a lesson. They can also be used to help learners direct their focus on what matters most. By creating mental models, the brain’s focus doesn’t power off but instead transfers from one alternate reality to the next. Since the brain can’t tell imagination and real life apart, mental models help learners gather experience.ReferencesJeff Wise. What Really Happened Aboard Air France 447. Popular Mechanics, Dec 6, 2011.Charles Duhigg. Computer Says: Stop Relying on the Computer. Wired Magazine, July/Aug 2016 issue.Charles Duhigg. The Power of Mental Models: How Flight 32 Avoided Disaster. LifeHacker.com, March 16, 2016.Tip #42: Provoking Learners with Story QuestionsTip #99: Changing Behavior by Advancing Experience and StoriesRay Jimenez, PhDVignettes Learning"Helping Learners Learn Their Way"Ray Jimenez, PhD Vignettes Learning Learn more about story and experience-based eLearning

In our research on successful projects, leaders and teams, we've found that there are two key needs that employees have:  Clarity around the purpose of their work (Why am I doing this?)  A bad example to prove the need: A senior IT leader is trying to explain some system issues to the business sponsor.  The sponsor says "Did I ask you what was wrong?  Did I ask for your advice?  Just make the change I told you to make. "   This type of conversation is not uncommon.  In our crazed addiction to juggling multiple tasks, projects and work, we have little time to listen to each other.  The outcome? Impulsive decisions which drive irritating rework down the road and destroy collaboration between the people involved going forward.  It's very expensive and very unnecessary.    Ability to measure and make an impact   A bad example to prove the need: A company was struggling with very low engagement numbers in their annual survey.  They knew they had already lost some good people to other companies.  To raise engagement scores, they pulled people out of their work for Happy Hours.  Months later, when they re-distributed the survey, the engagement had gone DOWN.  Turns out, Happy Hour was just another task added to an already overloaded day for most employees.  The next step was to run the TTI Success Insights Stress Quotient, which measures the actual components causing the stress.  The results? People were overworked and the organization was under stress.  They were fine with each other (so Happy Hour was not needed) but they were tired and frustrated.  The company acknowledged the need to the employees and hired  more people. The engagement scores went up.   Look at the questions on your engagement survey and see if they are answering the questions you need answered.  Are you asking questions like this?  What if you asked people to rate the following statements from 1 Not True to 9 True:  I clearly understand why I do the work that I do and what purpose it serves in the organization.  My daily work allows me to makes a positive impact on this organization.  The responsibility of each individual is to be an equal player in any discussion around engagement.  He or she gets to choose whether to be engaged or not.  It is a choice, not a virus. Each employee is responsible for stating clearly to his or her manager what is needed to meet these two goals for them.  Sure, the manager should be asking but if not, each individual has the right and responsibility to ask.  If you want to be promoted, do more good than others, then ask for the promotion explaining why you are the best candidate.   Choose your path.   

My recent experience returning a pair of shoes to Nordstrom was a perfect example of a company understanding my blog post, Small Wastes Get BIG Quickly. Nordstrom doesn’t actually have a formal return policy. Here’s what they say on their website about returns and exchanges. "We stand behind our goods and services and want you to be satisfied with them. We’ll always do our best to take care of customers—our philosophy is to deal with you fairly and reasonably; we hope you will be fair and reasonable with us as well." "We hope to build trust with our customers and create a relationship with them for the long term. Standing behind what we sell is a big part of that. We think many customers choose to shop with us because they know if their purchase isn’t right, we’ll work to fix it." Returning my item was a simple, hassle-free, stress-free experience. There was no form to fill out. Nobody asked me to justify my return. The only question I got asked was "Back on the card?".  It took all of 30 seconds. Which freed up the salesperson to deliver the value they were hired to deliver, namely create trusting relationships with customers and help them BUY products. Bureaucracy Means Less Value Imagine if Nordstrom implemented a more bureaucratic return policy with questions and forms that took minutes instead of seconds. Or bought a new, slower return application that had the same effect. What would be the impact? Well, let’s look at my Lean Waste Calculator for Sales. Nordstrom has 72,500 employees total and let’s assume 50,000 of those work in their stores as salespeople. The current 30-second return process extrapolated to all salespeople requires 766,667 hours per year assuming every salesperson processes one return every hour they work. Increasing the return process to one, two and three minutes dramatically increases the hours and equates to hundreds, even thousands, of salespeople NOT selling. Yes, three minutes turns into 4.6 MILLION hours a year and would be like cutting almost 2,400 salespeople from the payroll. Nordstrom estimates that revenue per employee is about $200,000 a year, so that equates to lost sales of almost $500,000,000 a year! Now, these numbers are just estimates, but even if they’re off by a lot, we’re still talking BIG BUCKS! Stepping Over A Dollar to Save a Dime People commonly justify bureaucracy with cost savings. They believe collecting and analyzing more data will result in lower costs. So, they create more complicated processes to approve and account  for activities like travel, purchasing and, yes, returns. What’s missing from their thinking are the opportunity costs of the people they force to collect the data. Instead of delivering products or services that customers will pay for, these people are forced to spend more time on activities customers couldn’t care less about. With the Lean Waste Calculator, you can estimate the time impact and opportunity costs of adding wasteful activities.  Give it a try at your workplace and let me know what you find at todd@maverickinstitute.com. Don’t Mistake Waste For Value Now, some of you are thinking ‘But, wait, people care about returns, so it’s a customer value.’ Not true. Customers don’t buy items to return them; they only return them when something isn’t right. Nobody says ‘Oh, boy! I can’t wait to drive back to the mall to return these shoes.’ It’s an inconvenience and customers want it to take the shortest amount of time possible. What activities in your organization take time away from delivering real customer value? What are the opportunity costs? How much more customer value could you be delivering? House Hunting Update: As of July 1, we are homeowners again! We FINALLY landed a great house. Thanks for all your kind responses to my earlier post. Let’s Ride! Todd Hudson, Head Maverick     The post Focus on Value (Sales), Not Bureaucracy (Returns) appeared first on Maverick Institute.

Well, July almost killed my wife and me. Packing, moving, traveling and coaching certification candidates while we were both fighting off one of the worst summer colds ever. It was not pretty let me tell you. But, we’re moved into our new house and clearly have lots of work to do. You don’t want to see the garage. 5S to the Rescue! It seems only fitting to talk about a Lean organizing and cleaning technique called ‘5S,’ which is very much on our minds these days and one that you can use in your business and personal life. That time you spend looking for a tool, form, kitchen implement or on-line course? WASTE. Those hundreds of feet you cover running around from room to room or lab to lab gathering materials or trying to locate something? WASTE. This technique is called 5S because there are five steps and each step, coincidentally, starts with the letter ’S.’ They are: Sort Set Shine Standardize Sustain 5S - SORT This is getting rid of stuff you don’t need and is, frankly, the most important step. You have to be brutally honest and it’s best to do this step with people who can interrogate your true need for an item. If you’re feeling weak, give them the power to say ‘Yes’ or ‘No.’ And once you’ve made a decision, get rid of the item immediately! It’s too easy for stuff that’s hanging around to creep back into a drawer or closet. While we usually only think about physical spaces, the clutter in the cloud is really getting out of hand! Software for backing up and sharing files saves copies of everything in multiple places, which is a nightmare for locating and version control. If you’re in L&D, how many courses do you have in your LMS that are TRULY useful? Be honest. How much time to employees spend trying to find what they need? And how often do they abandon their search because they can’t find it quickly enough? 5S - SET This means putting what you do need in its proper place, i.e., at the point of use and immediately visible. A healthcare system in New Jersey was designing a new hospital and estimated that the average nurse was walking OVER THREE MILES A DAY trying to find medicines, charts, equipment, etc.! That’s time away from delivering patient care and hard on the feet. The new hospital was designed to minimize this wasted time and energy. How many miles do you and your colleagues waste walking every year looking for things? It’s a lot more than you think. 5S - SHINE Just like it sounds, this means cleaning, polishing, oiling and otherwise maintaining the tools and equipment that you’ve decided to keep. And don’t forget the area where they’re kept and used! 5S - STANDARDIZE This means creating systems that perpetuate the order you’ve created and keeps everyone doing them the same way. A great example is the shadow board, which clearly shows where something belongs and when something is missing. This is an excellent example because the tools are color coded for their specific application, which makes it even easier to grab the right one. 5S - SUSTAIN The hardest part of any organizing effort is keeping it going. It’s easy to not put that tool back in it’s proper place at the end of the day. Just do it first thing tomorrow, right? And then it doesn’t happen. Part of sustainment is prioritizing cleanliness and organization and, then, allocating time to do them everyday. My wife and I are now on a ‘5S Mission.’ We want to spend less time searching for stuff and more time enjoying our life and work. Let’s Ride! Todd Hudson, Head Maverick   The post 5S This Mess!!! appeared first on Maverick Institute.

Gut feel, intuition and bias all have implications in the decision making process of your next hire. Learn how to overcome these common hiring mistakes.

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​Here's our model of ©Talent GPS.  Depending on your perspective (employee, employer), you may start at different places in this process.   Each of the blue events (rounded rectangles) are described below in more detail.  Engagement is part of every single part of the process.  Notice the dotted arrows for Stay which are there for individuals to figure out how far they want to climb up the career ladder and when they want to stay put or retire.    ​Being a process, not an event, there is no end.  The wheels just keep on spinning.  Promote is simply a variation of Hire, requiring many of the same (and often ignored) events including onboarding and career mapping. As you'll read later, Gap Reports inform the Career Plan which can mature into a Personal Leadership Plan. The big question - who is in charge of this process?  In the next section, you'll learn about the importance of ownership.   

Lately, I’ve noticed a lot of people engaging in what I call "ain’t it awful" conversations. Believe me, I understand that with things going on like the terror attacks around the world, the controversial Presidential campaigns in the United States, and even the weather, it is easy to slip into a negative mindset. But hand-wringing and downbeat discussions aren’t going to change anything. In fact, it can make things worse by taking all your thoughts into a downward spiral. Now is the time for positive thinking. I always loved working with Norman Vincent Peale because he used to say "Positive thinkers get positive results." That is such a powerful message, and we need to keep it in mind to be able to rise above the negative and focus on the positive. We are free to choose our thoughts—and thoughts guide our behavior. It is essential to keep uplifting messages in our head so that we are able to think more clearly, make better decisions, and approach life with a better attitude. I don’t want to minimize the difficulties we all face in life such as illnesses, money problems, stress at work, and a hundred other things that can drag you down. But I know that a peaceful mind will give you more energy—and that will help you get through tough times.  My wife, Margie, uses a gratitude exercise to help her focus on the positive. Each evening she writes down the top three positive things that happened in her day. Sometimes it is as simple as getting a much-needed rainstorm in our time of drought, or reconnecting with an old friend. The point is that she ends her day with positive thoughts and a peaceful mind. Try it for yourself. I encourage you to think about it from two perspectives—your personal life and your work environment. I think you’ll be surprised how this simple shift in thinking will change your outlook on life for the better.

With Cloud computing gaining a major foothold in the enterprise, millions of corporate employees are seeing the legacy intranet apps they’ve used for decades getting replaced with shiny new SaaS applications. We thought we’d help you clarify things through our little script about two office workers trying to make sense of it all. INTERIOR, BIG CITY BAR — NIGHT The camera slowly approaches a table where two thirty-something men are enjoying their beers while having an animated discussion. John: So, our company just got this new XYZ application deployed across all departments. Our new CTO guy pushed hard for it, said it’s the best of its kind. It wasn’t so hot. Nick: Why’s that? John: Well, it’s one of those Cloud apps — and they didn’t want to go with a Cloud product. Nick: Why not? John: They claimed it wouldn’t be as secure. Kept at it too, until the CTO guy, who is a real propeller-head, told them that those are old wives tales, and reminded them how the desktop applications our company used to run has lost us plenty of data due to viruses, crashes and user errors. Nick: Yep… security is often perceived rather than enforced. So he says those Cloud apps are as secure as regular apps? John: Perhaps more. Those Cloud companies have far better experts at securing servers and stuff than your average business. It’s what they do. Plus everything gets backed up 24/7. Nick: Yeah, I bet that’s important. I’ve never backed up my stuff. What else is good about those Cloud apps? John: Well, the people from the IT department seem to have loads more free time now.  Used to take them hours to backup and update the old desktop software — now the Cloud guys do it for them, while they play Pokemon Go or flirt on Facebook. Nick: Ha ha. I bet they won’t be against Cloud apps in the future. John: Guess not. Though I really don’t understand what the big difference is between the Cloud and those other apps we run on our intranet. All seem to run from the internet, through a web-browser. Nick: Nothing that immediately strikes you as different then? John: Not really. Well, except once that we had a sudden surge on system usage because of Black Friday and all of our self-hosted apps went down, along with our main server. The Cloud one seems to behave better, I guess, even on the most demanding days. Nick:  Here it is then… Cloud apps are more robust. I mean, they have to be, since they need to be able to handle millions of users at the same time. Or even billions — Facebook has a billion users, no? John: Yeah, or close. Plus, they’re more flexible. We can upgrade or downgrade our usage plan whenever we want, whereas the self-hosted applications come with this multi-year license. Oh, and we had to wait for the IT guys to set it up, which took 3 days — this one was ready in 5’. Nick: No setup time? John: No, basically it was already setup and expecting any potential business to start using it. You know, like Gmail is already there and waits for new users to just create an account. John: Still, lots of people in the company are still afraid of the Cloud. You know, the whole Big Brother thing and all. Nick: Aren’t they already on Facebook, Twitter and who knows what else? And, Cloud aside, doesn’t the company already exchange data with tons of customers and partners? John: Yeah, go figure. But there’s something else that troubles me. On top of the Cloud, they have started talking SaaS. Nick: What’s that? John: I’ve googled it, and it’s short for Software-as-a-Service. Some new way to deploy software. Seems to be Cloud-based too. Actually, this new Cloud app that we’ve been talking about is also considered to be a SaaS thing by many. Others consider it a Cloud app. And others still a hosted app. Nick: What is it then? It surely can’t be all three! John: Well, I’ve spoken to Jane from IT — you know, the pretty one with the red hair — and she kind of explained it to me. SaaS is mostly the application itself, while the Cloud is more about the servers, networks and IT stuff. But not all agree. Many consider Cloud and SaaS to be the same thing. Nick: Well, as long as it works, and it runs nicely it might as well be little elves doing all the work. Another beer? John: Sure — but you are buying this round… DISSOLVE TO a modern, open-plan style office space. Dozens of satisfied employees are using some kind of enterprise application through their computer browsers. The post A summer chat about the Cloud appeared first on TalentLMS Blog.

Who doesn’t love going behind the scenes, meeting the movers and shakers? We know you loved our "talent behind TalentLMS" series, so here’s the second part - with a lot more to come. Let us present TalentLMS’ Account Manager, Lisa Vayvalako. Please introduce yourself to our readers. What’s your name and general background? I am Lisa Vayvalako. I was born in Istanbul, Turkey, to amazing parents of Armenian descent who had a strong case of wanderlust. After living in Germany for 15 years, they decided to move to the USA, but not before giving birth to me in one of the oldest cities in the world. I obtained all of my education in America until the tender age of 20, when I slowly felt the urge to travel and explore creep up on me. And you can’t fight genes, can you? So travel I did, and I was lucky enough to live in multiple countries. You are an Account Manager with TalentLMS. What does your role entail? I help distribute TalentLMS globally and strive to meet and exceed corporate goals, by providing solutions with exceptional customer service. What TalentLMS features do you think are most important in attracting new customers? I think the platform as a whole is what makes the product sell. I just add my giddy American twist when explaining what the product entails, through my demonstrations and overview of the product.  Having a young and dynamic marketing team also helps us present the product in the most up-to-date and efficient way. Likewise, which TalentLMS qualities do you think play an important role in customer retention? I am always pleased with our need to evolve. I must say that we have quite an impressive team working towards multiple goals at any given moment. The fact that we try to outdo ourselves by constantly improving the product with updates based on customer inquiries and suggestions helps a great deal, not only to obtain new customers but to keep the relationships with existing clients strong. What do you love the most about TalentLMS? Our Customer Service. I personally think we are very dedicated to helping our clients by not treating them as a ticket inquiry, but as actual people. Also, it’s great to attend yearly exhibitions and put a face to the people we work with through phone and email. How important is customer feedback in what you do? Do you have some specific unexpected/funny/insightful story to share about this? Customer feedback is a crucial element in what we do. As mentioned, it’s great to hear insights on what we can improve. I’ve had all sort of suggestions, ranging from humble feature requests to the idea of implementing CGI holograms that can be projected from our portal. How do you like working in the online learning industry in general and what do you love about working for Epignosis in particular? Speaking four languages fluently helps me communicate on a global range. Its always satisfying to be able to speak the native language of a client, especially of those who are not fluent in English. The online learning industry definitely has its merits. I believe that eLearning is a great tool to ease basic tasks. Working for Epignosis, in particular, is a pretty rewarding experience. We have an open door policy and work with strong leaders who are here to help us excel in what we do. There is no intimidation or hierarchy. Everyone helps each other and there is no such thing as a wrong question. Working in an environment where there is constant support  to grow and achieve more eliminates competition in the workplace. If you could work in any other position in TalentLMS, which one would it be and why? The Receptionist. She gets free pizza. The post The talent behind TalentLMS - A chat with TalentLMS’ Account Manager appeared first on TalentLMS Blog.

I usually know what direction north, south, east and west are but I still depend on my GPS (thank you Google Maps).  As I travel, I usually have an address for where I want to end up, but no clue how to navigate there.  GPS not only shows me the way, it also adjusts for problems with traffic and construction that I would never have been aware of.  I still get a little lost occasionally, but  I have to admit that usually happens when I go rogue and ignore the GPS.  Like most of you, I panic when it seems I may run out of charge on my phone before I get to my location.  I've become very dependent on my GPS.  Organizations are struggling with a similar problem.  It's difficult to map a route from hiring to retiring for all employees, a map that meets the needs of both the employee and the employer. There are two current popular challenges:    ENGAGEMENT - employees are not feeling good about their employment TALENT - it's increasingly difficult to find new employees who fit the job required  In many cases, we talk about these as two different issues, but in fact, these issues illustrate events that occur in the process of aligning people (talent) and work, or put another way, both are part of the map from hire to retire.  Instead of pretending that hiring, promoting, career planning and succession planning are all disconnected events, we must map a simple, clear way to glue the events together into a cohesive process.  This is the only hope to strategically align the people who work for us.  Building talent is a PROCESS not a series of EVENTS.    To speak holistically about growing employees into proud, aligned people who make an impact requires dispelling the current misconceptions:  Talent is a word that tricks us into forgetting that we are talking about individual lives.  Talent sounds anonymous;  our people are not.   Growing employees requires more than a training class, an LMS, a well-crafted survey, or any single event. Performance is built through ongoing trial and error, coaching and practice.  A great talent process means that your organization helps people get from where they are to where they want to go.  Not everyone wants to end up in the same place. Some may not want to go very far and may feel very secure staying put.  Some may want to reach for the stars.  All choices are good and a personalized approach to each person is critical to a great talent process. Talent development, talent management and talent all by itself are confusing terms and not used consistently across organizations.  Define these terms for your organization.  There is no magic software to build this process, but once built, many different types of software may help. Legality for the whole talent process is changing a lot, so be sure your process is compliant.   Do not wing talent.   RMA is currently researching and designing a realistic process to meet the growth needs of organizations and people.  Consulting on this process will be available from us beginning September 1st  and a book will (hopefully) be in your hands by the end of the year.  In the meantime, we'd like to share our initial research results and hope you'll send us your thoughts to add to our research on these critical issues.  

Questions speak louder than words—and great facilitators are well-prepared to answer them.

What thoughts run through your mind when you see the photo above? Some of us may shake our heads and say, "That guy’s too old to play." Meanwhile, others may smile as a similar memory flashes through their mind’s eye.Built to Play, Built Through PlayA belief among a number of adults appear to be about play being frivolous, something extra, an add-on or something that’s nice to do when we have the time.  Furthermore, play is viewed as just a childish inclination which shouldn’t be around anymore. They believe play is different from and shouldn’t mix with more serious matters like work and learning. However such perspective, which defines play as an activity, is really a misconception.Play is natural especially to human beings who are the biggest players of all, according to psychiatrist Stuart Brown, M.D. It’s a biological process that evolved to help animals - including humans - survive. Brown, who has studied more than 6,000 "play histories" (case studies), concludes that "play is part of our evolutionary history." He defines play as a state of mind rather than an activity and believes we have a "drive to play and we are built to play."Play is encouraged among children because of its role in helping them understand the world and develop motor and social skills, among others. As we entered adulthood, we may have been told to leave play behind but we don’t really lose the "need for novelty and pleasure as we grow up," says Scott G. Eberle, Ph.D, vice president for play studies at The Strong and editor of the American Journal of Play."Nothing lights up the brain like play," Brown once said in a TED Talk. Play shapes the brain and is important to our adaptability, intelligence, creativity, innovation, and social and problem-solving skills. This means learning and play are not separate; they can co-exist.Applying Play to Learning DesignA little play goes a long way. Brown says play is really more of a catalyst which "lights up" our brain and results in increased productivity and happiness in everything we do. In applying play to learning design, there’s no need to overhaul our existing courses. Adding elements of play into our learning design should be enough to boost its fun factor. Here are a few suggestions. 1. Interactive stories Interactive stories focus less on telling and more on letting the learners become part of the story. This is similar to solitary or solo play where learners can explore the story and engage with it on their own. 2. Story questionsIn relation to solo play and role-playing or simulation, asking questions allows learners’ minds to "shift gears" from facts (semantic memory) to episodes (episodic memory) to "My Story" (autobiographical memory). This process makes learning both desirable and relevant because now they’re personally involved - inserting their own experiences into the story.3. Episodic Learning In the vein of telenovelas and reality series, Episodic Learning or Thematic Learning allows trainers to go in-depth and spur learners to reflect, and openly discuss and think about the possibilities resulting from one scenario.4. Hands on projectIn our Story-Based eLearning Design Online Workshop, participants get their "hands dirty" with their own mini projects. This is a great way to engage learners, make the workshop more fun and challenging, and is an avenue for discussion and feedback. For mini projects and other hands on projects to work, it’s important for participants to finish them. This will provide learners a sense of accomplishment, excitement, and satisfaction. 5. Exploration bonusAllow learners to explore. Provide activities and assignments that encourage them to learn on their own. Motivate them by giving an exploration bonus, which is a reward handed out to those who explore or try something new. The concept is common in the gaming industry but can also be found in the evolution theory. This can be useful in coaxing learners to step out of their comfort zones.6. ‘Get Together’ for DiscussionAfter letting learners explore on their own, it’s important to bring them together as a group or into multiple groups to share ideas, be inspired by other participants, and build relationships. These social "get togethers" should be fun and of a community-building nature.7. Team buildingAt its core, team building should be able to combine the strengths of each participant in such a way that it optimizes everyone’s learning. For instance, letting participants answer questions posted during a workshop allows them to share their responses which are molded by their own unique experiences and background. Their answers, in turn, add to the entire group’s shared knowledge.ConclusionsThere are various ways to incorporate play into learning design. At the root of all these is the belief that play and learning go hand in hand.What other ways can trainers and designers apply play in learning? Let me know your comments.ReferencesBrown, Stuart. Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul. Avery, 2009Kuschner, David. Book Review of Play: How It Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul. American Journal of Play, Volume 2, Number 3. Winter 2010 Margarita Tartakovsky, M.S. The Importance of Play for Adults. PsychCentral. 2012/11/15Brown, Stuart. Play is More than Fun. YouTube.com, 2009Barbakoff, Audrey. Learning Through Play in Adult Programs. RA News, August 2014Tip #39 - Employing Story Structure and Dynamics to Engage Different LearnersTip #28 - Create Memorable Story-based Test QuestionsTip #57 - Episodic LearningStory-Based eLearning Design Online Workshop Tom Stafford (June 19, 2012). "Why are We Curious?". BBCIngrid Chalufour, Walter F. Drew, and Sandi Waite-Stupiansky. Learning to Play Again: A Constructivist Workshop for Adults. Beyond the Journal, Young Children on the Web, May 2003Terhi Kouvo. Building Harmony Live & Learn - Stories of adult learning. 22.06.2016Ray Jimenez, PhDVignettes Learning"Helping Learners Learn Their Way"Ray Jimenez, PhD Vignettes Learning Learn more about story and experience-based eLearning

What thoughts run through your mind when you see the photo above? Some of us may shake our heads and say, "That guy’s too old to play." Meanwhile, others may smile as a similar memory flashes through their mind’s eye.Built to Play, Built Through PlayA belief among a number of adults appear to be about play being frivolous, something extra, an add-on or something that’s nice to do when we have the time.  Furthermore, play is viewed as just a childish inclination which shouldn’t be around anymore. They believe play is different from and shouldn’t mix with more serious matters like work and learning. However such perspective, which defines play as an activity, is really a misconception.Play is natural especially to human beings who are the biggest players of all, according to psychiatrist Stuart Brown, M.D. It’s a biological process that evolved to help animals - including humans - survive. Brown, who has studied more than 6,000 "play histories" (case studies), concludes that "play is part of our evolutionary history." He defines play as a state of mind rather than an activity and believes we have a "drive to play and we are built to play."Play is encouraged among children because of its role in helping them understand the world and develop motor and social skills, among others. As we entered adulthood, we may have been told to leave play behind but we don’t really lose the "need for novelty and pleasure as we grow up," says Scott G. Eberle, Ph.D, vice president for play studies at The Strong and editor of the American Journal of Play."Nothing lights up the brain like play," Brown once said in a TED Talk. Play shapes the brain and is important to our adaptability, intelligence, creativity, innovation, and social and problem-solving skills. This means learning and play are not separate; they can co-exist.Applying Play to Learning DesignA little play goes a long way. Brown says play is really more of a catalyst which "lights up" our brain and results in increased productivity and happiness in everything we do. In applying play to learning design, there’s no need to overhaul our existing courses. Adding elements of play into our learning design should be enough to boost its fun factor. Here are a few suggestions. 1. Interactive stories Interactive stories focus less on telling and more on letting the learners become part of the story. This is similar to solitary or solo play where learners can explore the story and engage with it on their own. 2. Story questionsIn relation to solo play and role-playing or simulation, asking questions allows learners’ minds to "shift gears" from facts (semantic memory) to episodes (episodic memory) to "My Story" (autobiographical memory). This process makes learning both desirable and relevant because now they’re personally involved - inserting their own experiences into the story.3. Episodic Learning In the vein of telenovelas and reality series, Episodic Learning or Thematic Learning allows trainers to go in-depth and spur learners to reflect, and openly discuss and think about the possibilities resulting from one scenario.4. Hands on projectIn our Story-Based eLearning Design Online Workshop, participants get their "hands dirty" with their own mini projects. This is a great way to engage learners, make the workshop more fun and challenging, and is an avenue for discussion and feedback. For mini projects and other hands on projects to work, it’s important for participants to finish them. This will provide learners a sense of accomplishment, excitement, and satisfaction. 5. Exploration bonusAllow learners to explore. Provide activities and assignments that encourage them to learn on their own. Motivate them by giving an exploration bonus, which is a reward handed out to those who explore or try something new. The concept is common in the gaming industry but can also be found in the evolution theory. This can be useful in coaxing learners to step out of their comfort zones.6. ‘Get Together’ for DiscussionAfter letting learners explore on their own, it’s important to bring them together as a group or into multiple groups to share ideas, be inspired by other participants, and build relationships. These social "get togethers" should be fun and of a community-building nature.7. Team buildingAt its core, team building should be able to combine the strengths of each participant in such a way that it optimizes everyone’s learning. For instance, letting participants answer questions posted during a workshop allows them to share their responses which are molded by their own unique experiences and background. Their answers, in turn, add to the entire group’s shared knowledge.ConclusionsThere are various ways to incorporate play into learning design. At the root of all these is the belief that play and learning go hand in hand.What other ways can trainers and designers apply play in learning? Let me know your comments.ReferencesBrown, Stuart. Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul. Avery, 2009Kuschner, David. Book Review of Play: How It Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination, and Invigorates the Soul. American Journal of Play, Volume 2, Number 3. Winter 2010 Margarita Tartakovsky, M.S. The Importance of Play for Adults. PsychCentral. 2012/11/15Brown, Stuart. Play is More than Fun. YouTube.com, 2009Barbakoff, Audrey. Learning Through Play in Adult Programs. RA News, August 2014Tip #39 - Employing Story Structure and Dynamics to Engage Different LearnersTip #28 - Create Memorable Story-based Test QuestionsTip #57 - Episodic LearningStory-Based eLearning Design Online Workshop Tom Stafford (June 19, 2012). "Why are We Curious?". BBCIngrid Chalufour, Walter F. Drew, and Sandi Waite-Stupiansky. Learning to Play Again: A Constructivist Workshop for Adults. Beyond the Journal, Young Children on the Web, May 2003Terhi Kouvo. Building Harmony Live & Learn - Stories of adult learning. 22.06.2016Ray Jimenez, PhDVignettes Learning"Helping Learners Learn Their Way"Ray Jimenez, PhD Vignettes Learning Learn more about story and experience-based eLearning

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Ray Jimenez, PhD Vignettes Learning Learn more about story and experience-based eLearning

Ray Jimenez, PhD Vignettes Learning Learn more about story and experience-based eLearning

Which skills and personality traits are holding HR leaders back from greater success with analytics, and what functions will be their most promising partners along the way?

A wise man once wrote that "what we call online learning, or eLearning, is not a single thing, but many". Sure, it’s not exactly a Paolo Coelho-caliber quotation — after all the wise man was me, and I wrote it in the introduction of the first part of this series of posts, but it’s still an apt description of the situation. There are tons of different ways to do eLearning, and tons of different business needs that online learning can be applied to. In this series of posts, we’ll take a look at how TalentLMS fares for each and every variety of online learning. In our first post, we covered Compliance Training; this one is all about Instructor-led Training. Instructor-led Training 101 Instructor-led Training, also known as blended learning or hybrid learning, is not one of the different business cases for eLearning (like e.g. Compliance Training and Employee Onboarding are), but a different way to perform training and manage learning sessions. To put it simply, Instructor-led Training, which, from now on we’ll be calling ILT, is just the practice of combining online training with traditional, classroom-based (or online, but real time) seminars. As such, it can be combined with all the other categories of training, e.g. hybrid employee onboarding courses, hybrid compliance training, etc. In practice, though, you’ll only really need ILT in special situations, as pure online learning courses are more than capable of covering most of your employee training needs. When does ILT make sense? But, Mr. TalentLMS-blog-guy, you might ask, why would we want to go back to the ancient days of classroom-based training, when we have all this new online training technology at our disposal? Well, first, you don’t need to choose one or the other. TalentLMS allows you to combine both with the same ease, and manage online and in-person training from the same intuitive interface. As for the need for hybrid learning setups, it’s simple really. Classroom-based training is still the best and most immediate way to approach certain kinds of material, especially anything that requires hands-on practice. You can learn a lot about cooking or how to fly an airplane online, for example, and especially all the theoretical stuff associated with those activities, but in the end, you just need to have a go at the real thing. The same thing is true for lots of kinds of corporate training (operating some kinds of industrial machinery, working on the assembly line, practicing "business English", etc). That said, there’s also a third option, somewhere in between online and classroom-based training, that might be just what you need: we’re talking about real-time instructor-led webinars and teleconference sessions. For cases where immediate aural and visual feedback is required, but tactile access is not important, these might be enough to cover all your ILT needs. ILT support in TalentLMS So, how well does TalentLMS handle Instructor-led training? Very well, if I may say so, but, as always, keeping the whole process simple and intuitive. At the most basic level, TalentLMS models ILT through a special kind of lesson (called, expectedly, "Units"), where each "Unit" may contain one or more "Sessions". Sessions are the "live" (real time) lectures that can take place either in the physical world (e.g. a classroom) or the Cloud (e.g. webinar). TalentLMS instructors can create new ILT units from the Courses page, by selecting "Instructor-Led Training" from the dropdown control, and giving the new unit a name. The next step would be assigning one or more sessions (of the "classroom" or "webinar" type) to the newly created unit. Those require the instructor to specify their start date, duration and (in the case of classroom-based sessions) their location and maximum capacity of the classroom. Upcoming ILT sessions are shown on each learner’s TalentLMS dashboard ahead of time (so that they can find courses that look interesting and register to them). This happens for both classroom-based courses and webinars, with the latter also allowing the learners to attend them online by clicking the "Join Webinar" link when their time arrives. Since, unlike online lessons, it is not automatically known when a learner has "passed" or "completed" an ILT unit, this decision is left for the instructor to make, by simply changing the learner’s status from "pending" to "passed" or "not passed" (fail), and optionally grading the learner’s performance. A few minor details aside, there’s not much more to TalentLMS’ support for blended learning. And yet, those few constructs are powerful enough to cover all the common hybrid learning scenarios, and simple enough that you can get going with ILT in mere minutes. Conclusion In today’s post, the second in our "many faces of eLearning" series, we had a look at Instructor-led training and TalentLMS’ support for it. ILT, while not necessary in most cases, is nevertheless a very useful tool to have at your disposal when your training material calls for it. Stay tuned for the next episode, where we’ll examine another one of the many faces of eLearning in the context of TalentLMS. The post The many faces of eLearning #2: Instructor-led Training with TalentLMS appeared first on TalentLMS Blog.

Creating online training is simple and, as with all simple things, it is more difficult than one may initially think. The reason does not only lie in the development of the eLearning courses, but also in how they are received by learners. Here are five factors to take into consideration when planning to improve employee engagement by creating online training courses. Align training to career development From a corporation’s perspective, each training course has to align with its business objectives. From a learner’s perspective, it has to tie well with their own career goals. According to The Deloitte Millennial Survey 2016, 71% of respondents said they were likely to leave their company within the next two years because their leadership skills were not being fully developed. At the same time, professional development was their fifth top priority when evaluating job opportunities. Conducting regular and rigorous training needs analyses, as well as implementing an effective talent management strategy is a win-win situation: it leads to developing and retaining high-potential employees, which then has a positive knock-on effect on the company’s branding. Learning paths Learning is a process, not an event. To reflect this in training, we have come up with the idea of learning paths, which are sets of multiple content items combined. Both Facebook and Google are using learning paths in their online training academies, not to mention LinkedIn’s Lynda, which specializes in them. There are three main reasons why these top companies have turned to them:  a) Each learner can find or create paths that match their personal goals b) When in context, an extra value is added to each course c) They offer meaningful insight into each learner’s behavior, which can then be further capitalized on. Ask your middle management to create learning paths relevant to their teams. At the same time, give learners the option to create personalized paths according to their needs. To make things work seamlessly, there is only one prerequisite, which takes us to our next point. Learning repositories Imagine being an employee who constantly seeks to develop new skills. You access your LMS from time to time, only to find out that you have already completed all the courses and learning paths relevant to your role. Would you not feel a bit discouraged? Or even undervalued? Learning repositories are the central libraries with digital resources, which, through an LMS, reach the learner’s screen. In theory, the bigger the enterprise, the bigger the learning repositories must be. However, according to CIPD‘s Learning & Development Annual Survey Report 2015, the larger organizations, with more than 250 employees, tend to have a smaller budget per employee. As there is no magic recipe to solve this problem, the training team have to keep juggling the balls until they find what suits them best. A key fact to take into consideration is that when a company’s L&D budget is expanded, the workload increases as well. Gamification Gamification is the circuit that runs through an enterprise and engages departments and individuals into a healthy form of competition. A few years ago, the only person who would know if someone was not a keen learner would be their manager. Gamification has changed this completely, and this is why it has been a popular buzzword in eLearning. Deloitte was the first big company to gamify its training in 2012. Within six months, it reported a 37% increase in returning users to its Leadership Academy. Like everything else, there is a catch: "Traditional leaderboards are, in fact, counter-productive. The same consistent top users, with astronomic scores, turn off everyone who knows they have no chance of beating them", says James Sanders, Manager of Innovation at Deloitte Consulting. So, do allow competition among your staff, but prevent it from evolving into a rivalry that could discourage some of them. Training should be fun, not a box ticking exercise. LMS Needless to say, none of the above can be possible without an LMS that allows staff to undertake the training they need in the way they want, at the pace they can. Opt for an LMS that is, above all, user-friendly and engaging; an LMS that enables staff to follow set learning paths or create their personalized ones. Make sure they can see the training habits of their colleagues and get an overall idea of how the whole organization performs. If they know they are below the average learner, they will try harder, as long as they have available options. Create Online Training: The Gist Investing in resources to create online training courses is very important. Ensuring that staff will undertake them is also essential. Always make sure there are enough, relevant and, up-to-date resources in your learning repository; show your staff how they can combine them; let them interact with each other and sustain their engagement. Remember: learning is a process, both for the learner and the organization. If something doesn’t work, fix it or change it. The post Why creating an online corporate training course is just the beginning appeared first on TalentLMS Blog.

Instead of trying to meet the perceived special needs of Millennials, organizations should focus on how to get all people to join, stay and perform well.

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What if you could spot the DNA of a great leader? With the right data, you can - so why are so many businesses struggling with analytics?

"Success is not forever and failure isn’t fatal" is one of my favorite quotes from my friend Don Shula, former head coach of the Miami Dolphins football team and my coauthor on the book Everyone’s a Coach. This philosophy drove a great deal of Coach Shula’s behavior during his long career as the winningest head coach in NFL history. Don had a twenty-four-hour rule. He allowed himself, his coaches, and his players a maximum of twenty-four hours after a game to wallow in that game’s outcome—to fully experience either the thrill of victory or the agony of defeat. But once the twenty-four-hour deadline passed, they had to put it all behind them and focus their energies on preparing for the next game. A colleague recently shared with me how she used this technique at work to turn a big mistake into a learning moment. One of our sales teams used an Excel spreadsheet saved on a shared drive to track revenue and bookings. The database provided an easy method to run reports by type of product sold, sales by person, and other key categories. Everyone on the team was able to access the document easily any time they needed information—that is, until the day one team member accidentally deleted the entire file! When the employee shared this news with her boss, she thought she might actually be fired. The manager had a better idea. She calmed the employee down by asking her to start brainstorming how they might recreate the data. Together they came up with a few options: ask the IT department if the file had been backed up so they could just request a copy; check to see if anyone had copied the file onto their desktop, or recreate the file from scratch. This activity helped the employee start thinking in a positive manner instead of beating herself up. The manager did one more thing: she gave the employee permission to go ahead and lament her mistake as much as she wanted to—but only for twenty-four hours. After the required time, they would meet again to discuss next steps and to talk about what they both had learned. What a difference a day makes. At first, the manager and employee were discouraged to find out the IT department didn’t have a backup—but then they discovered the manager had saved a copy of the file to her desktop a week earlier. So the employee needed only to update a week’s worth of data and the database was back in business. Of course, the employee learned to be extremely careful when closing a shared file. But the biggest learnings proved to be the foundation for an ongoing trusted working relationship: The employee learned: she could be honest with her manager; her manager trusted her to solve problems; she and her manager worked well as a team; and twenty-four hours is plenty of time to feel bad about a mistake. The manager learned: the importance of keeping her cool in the face of disaster; and how to empower her employee to turn a problem into a victory. As a result, their respect for each other grew and they went on for years, sharing successes and treating every challenge as a learning moment. Give the twenty-four-hour rule a try. Celebrate successes but don’t get a big head—and don’t get too down on yourself when you don’t succeed. Keep things in perspective and remember: success is not forever and failure isn’t fatal.