If you play Trivial Pursuit often you might be familiar with factoids such as that Rubik’s cube was created by Hungarian sculptor Erno Rubik, and that the sandwich was invented by John Montagu, the 4th Earl of Sandwich. But do you know who helped create your favorite Cloud-based LMS platform, or the names of the people working behind the scenes to bring you the most satisfying SaaS experience? In this series of posts, we’ll have a look at the talented people behind TalentLMS. Let’s start with Elena. Please introduce yourself to our readers. What’s your name and general background? I’m Elena and I’m a Customer Success Manager here at TalentLMS. Coming from a very different background (Chemistry) and working in an R&D environment, it wasn’t long until I decided to make a career switch. After completing a Masters degree in Marketing & Creativity, I worked in Digital Marketing for a few years and gained great perspective on identifying online customers and finding ways to bring greater value to them. That’s why, when the need for a customer success manager arose in TalentLMS, I jumped at the opportunity to bring everything together and really get to know our customers, how they interact with the product, what their needs are and how our marketing strategy needs to change to help them fully meet them. So, you are a Customer Success Manager. What does your role entail? Unlike most traditional businesses where the customer relationship ends with the purchase, in a subscription business a purchase is where the relationship begins. And that’s where I come in. Building strong customer relationships and ensuring that customers are getting the most value out of their TalentLMS training platform are the primary goals of my role as a Customer Success manager. Or, in simpler words, keeping customers happy. How do you qualify and quantify Customer Success? Customer success does have its share of metrics — however strange that may sound given that "happiness" cannot be fully quantified. We use a number of metrics to quantify Customer Success such as User & Revenue Churn (lost customers & revenue — typically due to account cancellations & downgrades), Lifetime Value (a prediction of what the expected revenue is per customer), Last log-in date (how frequently customers use TalentLMS). Ultimately, of course, all these metrics translate into revenue. What is Epignosis’ approach for achieving Customer Success? We have recently introduced a Customer Success manager to our Basic unlimited, Plus and Premium accounts, which basically means that I’m responsible for new customers’ onboarding on the platform and for optimizing their TalentLMS use. In general, just being available to our customers and ensuring that every product touchpoint is a positive experience makes a huge difference. What TalentLMS features do you think play an important role in attracting new customers? I think it’s the simplicity of the product combined with its versatility and power. A user can be using it to train tens of thousands of their employees, while another can be selling courses to their partners and a third might be teaching their university students. Each scenario requires a completely different set of features, all of which are present in TalentLMS. Another strong point, which isn’t a software feature per se, but is nevertheless important, is the attention that we give to all of our customers, regardless of their size. Most of our clients know our team on a first-name basis and have built strong relationships over time. Likewise, what TalentLMS qualities do you think play an important role in customer retention? Just being there and listening to our clients and developing the product based on their feedback and needs. Even though most typical SaaS products have a ‘one-size-fits-all’ mentality, at TalentLMS we try to go beyond that. How is "customer success" related work different from customer support? Is it just a kind of higher level support, or is there more to it? Well, the main difference is that a Customer Success role is more of a proactive outreach, while Customer Support works in a more reactive way on incoming customer requests. Customer Success leverages usage data to identify patterns, and predict and avoid customer challenges before they turn up as support tickets. The two specialties also use very different metrics. Customer Support focuses on efficiency (average response time) and number-of-tickets whereas, with Customer Success we’re looking at the success oriented metrics I mentioned earlier. How important is customer feedback for your job function? Extremely important. Customer feedback is one of the main drivers of our product development. We do have a rule of thumb that a feature has to be requested by at least 3 different customers in order for it to be implemented and, of course, it should not affect the experience of the rest of our users, but in the end, each feature request is always examined on a case-by-case basis. Do you have a general philosophy when it comes to customer satisfaction, any abstract rules that you feel are important? I abide by two mottos that may sound a little cliche. That "patience is a virtue" and that "the customer is always right". Apart from that, being a customer of other SaaS businesses is one of the most important learning experiences, as you put yourself in the customers’ shoes and can really relate to their perspective. Conversely, do you have some practical, pragmatic observations from working to ensure customer satisfaction from the trenches? I believe that the more a customer gets accustomed to using the product to its optimum capability, the more tolerant and understanding they will become when things don’t go as planned. In a SaaS business, there are many things that may go wrong, i.e. a seemingly small change made in an update may affect a feature that a customer is using (or abusing) in a very customized way. Clients that have a deeper knowledge of the product tend to be more understanding when such bugs occur. The post The talent behind TalentLMS: An interview with our Customer Success Manager appeared first on TalentLMS Blog.

The real world has never been enough. Sure, it’s enough for tigers, eagles, elephants, panda bears and their animal friends, but it has never been enough for Homo Sapiens (that’s us). We always tried to improve upon it or, at least, alter it to be more to our tastes. From the invention of fire to the invention of air conditioning, we’re constantly expanding upon what nature gave us. As the famous sociologist Marshall McLuan once wrote, "all technologies are extensions of our physical and nervous systems to increase power and speed". Little did he know that we’d be reaching a point that we’re finally altering (or "augmenting") not just the physical world around us, but reality itself. And that, at the forefront of this revolution, would be not some groundbreaking scientific project, but a mobile game. Enter Pokemon Go. Sure, augmented reality is nothing new. We have been going at it for years, in expensive labs, prototypes, and early-adopter products. What Pokemon Go achieved, though, is making augmented reality not only popular and tangible for millions of people, but also fun. And that’s a big deal. In case you’ve been living under a rock, Pokemon Go is the latest mobile gaming craze, and it’s using augmented reality technology to make the popular "pocket monsters" come to life. It’s something that you really need to see to appreciate (just try not to get too hooked), but essentially it’s all about using input from your smartphone’s sensors (camera, GPS, accelerometer, etc.) to draw Pokemon figures with the correct perspective, size, etc. and blend them with what your camera shows, to make them appear as if they were standing right in front of you. Pokemon Go also makes use of certain locations (places of historical interest, city landmarks, local businesses, etc.) as gathering places, luring players there to have them catch imaginary monsters. As you’d expect, it’s a huge success — which will have a huge impact in tons of other fields, besides gaming. And, again, we’re not saying it’s the first example of augmented reality (A.R.) or A.R. gaming. But it’s the first hugely popular such example, and that’s more important (when one considers impact) than "mere" innovation. Is Augmented Reality Learning the future of eLearning? In our TalentLMS 2015 trends blogpost, we wrote that "Augmented reality learning is also maturing, with a number of relevant technologies, from Oculus Rift and Google Glass to Apple’s Watch, entering the market". And while those indeed have seen some traction in the months that have passed since, in the end, it took a simple gaming app to bring augmented reality to the forefront of the tech market. It makes sense too. The Rift, Google Glass, and the Apple Watch are more or less specialist devices with limited appeal. At best, there is a few million sold of each. But billions have a smartphone capable of running an application like Pokemon Go. I don’t think this will change in the near future. I think we’ll realize most of the potential of augmented reality not through special gadgets and headsets that make you look like a nerd, but from common tools everybody has, like the humble smartphone - which, technologically speaking, is not that humble at all. Pokemon Go showed how you can make an Augmented Reality application that runs on devices accessible to all, thus gain huge penetration, and also make it fun, and thus command incredible engagement figures. Now it’s up to eLearning technology providers to wake up and smell the Augmented Reality coffee and start following in the same footsteps. The possibilities for online training are endless, especially when combining augmented reality with gamification techniques. Augmented reality learning in the form of field trips, for example, where learners are shown relevant information, 3D models (of animals, plants, minerals, engine parts, and such) can be a great way to live up an otherwise boring museum visit, while at the same time it can challenge students to collect information to increase their score or ranking. With 4G networks getting more prevalent (and 5G on the way) one could even have a full augmented reality teleconference setup on the go, where an instructor could present specific virtual items to the learners based on their location, and even have them collaborate to hunt and collect them in some kind of "treasure hunt", e.g. across a city. In fact, the very gaming model of Pokemon Go would be great for training children on important historical figures, by having them go to the places where they lived or performed certain deeds and see them re-enacting specific historical scenes — demonstrators throwing chests of tea into the sea at the Boston harbour, for example; Martin Luther King giving his famous "I have a dream" speech from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C., that sort of thing. Of course, Augmented Reality learning is not just about general education either. In a corporate setting, for example, a Pokemon Go-like experience could be used to show relevant items (e.g. device parts) while employees walk around the factory premises following the assembly line. In fact, you don’t even need much of a physical space to benefit from A.R. Even conventional manuals, technical, medical or any other kind can benefit from it, by mixing the traditional textual content with overlaid 3D models relevant to the subject. A good (if limited) example of this is the ZooBurst service, that lets people create pop-up designs and attach them to websites or printed books. Conclusion - not just Pokemon Go Of course, we’ve only scratched the tip of the iceberg concerning the uses of Augmented Reality in education and corporate online training. Combined with the increasingly advancing mobile APIs and the plethora of sensors and output devices offered on modern smartphones (from motion sensors to haptic feedback), augmented reality will help us unleash the full potential of mobile training in the coming decade. And all of this kickstarted with a humble game such as Pokemon Go? Sure, why not. After all, didn’t the PC-in-every-home revolution get its start with young kids and their Atari 2600 consoles? Never underestimate the power of fun. The post Pokemon Go: Does this mean augmented reality learning is a thing? appeared first on TalentLMS Blog.

As you cultivate the PS / PM relationship, here is a great tool you can use to jump-start collaboration with each other and key stakeholders: Step 1: Go to a brewpub (or a coffee shop depending on your culture) Step 2: Draw this table and give everyone a copy Step 3: Break into two teams of people and ask them to take 15 minutes to make up a story about the following: You’ve gone into work and the project is halfway finished. Tell the story of what could be happening on the project using the bullets in the box below and based on the descriptors of either Quadrant 1 or 4 (one team will brainstorm and answer the questions for either Q1 or Q4.  Here’s an example of part of what the story for Q4 might be:If you are describing Q4, you might guess that people are not showing up for meetings or hitting their due dates.The budget and timeline are running low due to rework. Leadership is not involved and people are not talking to each other. The PM feels oppressed and the PS feels that the PM is the problem.Descriptors:​​​  After the teams share their stories, reassign the teams to the other two quadrants and do the same exercise.  Step 4: After sharing these stories, ask each team to split in two, and assign one team to each quadrant. This time, ask them to describe what events would have to take place for the project about to start to end up the quadrant they have been assigned. Share that list.Step 5: Create bylaws based on what you’ve learned together for the project about to start. Discuss how to avoid the bad events and decisions and leverage the good. Using this quick process ( done in less than three hours with strong facilitation), you can start every project well, leveraging an intentional and clear collaboration between the roles of Project Sponsor and Project Manager. Using the RMA process for project management, including a Project Charter, simple Project Schedule / Status Report /Dashboard and tons of communication, you may just be the first person in your company to actually finish a project well.Russell Martin & Associates has recently released a Project Management Program which allows you to customize the help you need with your project. You design the program (together with an RMA expert) that makes the most sense to your organization choosing from our popular online / live learning experiences, coaching, mentoring, Charter and Plan review, role defining, project read-outs, tools, and templates.  If your'e interested in working together to create a customized program for your team or organization, let us know and someone will connect with you shortly. 

Let’s face it, transparency and high potential programs don’t often go hand-in-hand. Here are a few reasons that might be the case.

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If the PS and PM are aligned, the project will go very well.  To sustain these connections requires some very specific discussions.  Having the guts to ask these questions requires trust and authenticity.  It also requires an agreement on the basic philosophy of the project.  Here are the philosophies (put these on a poster and hang everywhere) that drive project collaboration and success:Focus on the End Result / PurposeManage don’t control; collaborate don’t tellMinimize tools and chartsIt won’t go the way you’ve planned.  There will be surprises.Here are some additional tips and tricks that awesome companies use to drive project success:Use visual techniques to ensure understandingIf there’s a problem with a person, go talk to that person. Don’t send emails to everyone hoping it lands on them.Drive others' responsibility (I’ll take that) and clarify accountability (you own this now)Invite the PS do the status meeting / read-outs at least once a monthCreate alumni groups to support better project management that works better for your organization at your company.Do quick surveys when a project ends and capture lesson learned.Build a Project Advisory Panel with key stakeholders to continue to improve the throughput of projects and impact on the business. Create a Project Management Office (PMO) that connects organizational projects together that depend on each other and reduces redundant project work (does not audit!).Create Coaching Triads for PMs to improve leading projects

So you have a bunch of eLearning programs already in circulation. The marketing team keeps updating you with positive course registration numbers. So far, learners are happy, trainers seem satisfied and line managers are content with the performances of newly trained staff. All signs show that your LMS is truly producing successful learners and desirable knowledge. But before this bubble bursts due to lack of improvement through iteration, you need to administer certain evaluations. So, what are these evaluation about and how do they help maintain your eLearning winning streak? eLearning organizations face the daunting task of keep operations running smoothly and trouble-free every day. Without receiving periodic feedback from the LMS users and stakeholders, it is impossible to achieve daily stability. The process of receiving feedback and measuring the effectiveness of learning programs, learners and course facilitators is known as evaluation. In this article, we’ll share with you three types of evaluation you need to conduct through your LMS as surveys. Let’s explore each and examine some sample evaluation questions you can use in your own surveys. Learner Evaluation Questions This form of evaluation is extremely critical. The answers to the survey questions change with the competency level of the learners. Watch out for answers that rarely change or are pretty much the same for all survey participants. The following questions come highly recommended for learners. 1. Which were the most and the least useful items in this course? 2. Did you achieve the learning objectives of this course? If yes, what did you achieve and if no, what obstacles prevented you from achieving them? 3. What did you learn about your personal learning strategies when completing this course? Did you change as a learner during this course? 4. Do you feel this course has practical value in your life? If yes, where will you apply this knowledge? 5. How well did you participate in this course? Are you satisfied with your level and quality of participation? 6. Were you active and responsive in group participation? Did you contribute significantly to your group? 7. How would you evaluate your overall performance in this class? The goal here is to improve the course content and the course interactivity for the learner. Another goal is to make sure that learning is aligned with the learning needs and the expectations of the learner. Course and Facilitator Evaluation This type of survey is conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of the facilitator or the mentor appointed to the course. The aim here to inform the practice of the current course facilitator. The results of this survey are supposed to change the way the course is moderated and the collaboration in the learning environment. 1. Did the course and the instructor meet your needs as a learner? 2. Do you agree with the method of instruction and course delivery? 3. Was the instructor responsive and sensitive to your needs, as well as the group’s? 4. What are your feelings towards online learning? 5. What were the strengths of this course and its participants? 6. What improvements would you recommend for this course? 7. What piece of advice will you give to future learners of this course? Again, the audience of this survey are the learners. This is yet another route to bring the eLearning program closer to the learner preferences. Program Evaluation This survey can be completed by anyone. But care must be taken to account the different roles that participate in the survey. The recommendations given by a program evaluator will be different from those of a learner or a course mentor. All three results should be treated separately. If possible, they can be triangulated to achieve a stronger change management plan for the upcoming eLearning programs. 1. Was the course site easy to access? If not, what would you recommend? 2. Was the course easy to navigate? If not, what would you recommend? 3. Do you have any concerns regarding the software used for various course activities? 4. Were you able to access the technical support? How would you rate the quality of the support you received? 5. Comment on the size of the online course. Was it too long or too short? 6. If you think the course should be expanded, what additional concepts should have been covered? 7. If the course needs to be trimmed down, what areas could be omitted? 8. What additional courses would you like to be offered? 9. What improvements would you recommend for this course? Developing online surveys is fairly simple, especially if you have a capable LMS. The trick is to ask the right questions in your survey, to get honest and unbiased feedback. Use these evaluation questions in your course surveys to obtain the preferences and suggestions of your learners. Improve your courses to create experiences that are deeper and meaningful to the learner.   The post Evaluation Questions for your LMS: Learner, Course and Program appeared first on TalentLMS Blog.

How do organizations achieve excellence? What major factors and key roles need to be considered when creating learning and development programs (L&D) that lead to excellence? In this article, we’ll share with you the primary factors and stakeholders that enable an organization to achieve excellence. By definition, excellence implies an above-standard quality of performance or work. Excellence is also recognized as a talent or a quality that exceeds all expectations. In a nutshell, excellence is all about doing your best; it’s about continuously raising standards; it’s about exceeding customer expectations. In order to achieve excellence, organizations need to adopt self-assessment tools. These tools should measure the degree of knowledge creation, development, dissemination and management that occurs in the organization. Research has indicated that knowledge is the single core factor that leads organizations to excellence. This includes, but is not limited to, lessons learned, experience sharing, peer mentoring and many other strategies that create organization-specific knowledge. Knowledge is the single core factor that leads organizations to excellence.Click To Tweet The next step after establishing organization-specific knowledge is benchmarking against best-practicing organizations. When you feel you are copying the best and the number one organizations, you may be carving your pathway towards excellence. Excellence is established through improvement. It is determined by measuring goal acquisition. Excellence requires taking a hard look at the knowledge assets of the company. According to the EFQM Model of Excellence, if organizations want to achieve different results, they need to change the way knowledge is being utilized within the organizational culture. To make this simple, consider a few questions to check whether an organization is moving towards excellence: · Is the organizational knowledge static or dynamic? · Who is responsible for creating the knowledge; the management or the general employees? · Who is responsible for sharing the knowledge; the trainers or all employees? · Which factors aid in decision making for the organization; consensus or key managers? · How current are the benchmarking practices? When was the last time a self - assessment tool was used? · How comfortable is the organization in adopting new ideas? · What about creativity? · How often do employees come up with new processes, procedures, and protocols? These questions will help you define the degree of inclination your organization has towards excellence. They can also help define the gaps in your learning and performance. A golden rule to remember is that knowledge is the driving force behind excellence. Knowledge is the driving force behind excellence.Click To Tweet In the current eBusiness environment, eLearning is the best method to enhance knowledge and awareness with employees. Apart from using interactive eLearning programs, social media can also be used to distribute chunks of updates to employees. The goal is to keep everyone updated at all times so that timely decisions and actions can be made to prevent disasters and failures. Another area worth researching within an organization is the lessons learned from failures. Employees should explain to their peers what went wrong, how it was solved, how the problem can be avoided and alternative solutions. This kind of analysis creates invaluable knowledge that is unique to an organization. It reveals the learning gaps and helps recommend eLearning courses that can minimize them. The EFQM Model uses nine dimensions to evaluate organizational excellence. Notice that each of these nine dimensions can be improved upon with the aid of eLearning training programs. Let’s determine how this is possible: 1. Leadership: Organizations have increasingly realized the value of leadership courses for all employees. Leadership values are directly linked with ethical practices. Business can improve operations only if employees receive regular leadership reminders through eLearning programs. 2. People: This dimension is related to the human knowledge capital. It deals with the degree to which employees receive professional development, are given creative freedom and are recognized for innovating ideas. In short, eLearning programs can be used to instill a positive organization culture. 3. Policy and Strategy: Online learning platforms offer the opportunity to create transparent policies and strategies that can be discussed and enhanced by employees. 4. Partnership and Resources: Organizing and utilizing resources as well as forming strategic partnerships are major decisions. These need to be well-informed decisions, therefore leadership teams must be well-versed in best practices, a task easily undertaken through eLearning programs. 5. Processes: eLearning programs for on-the-job-training and job-aids can explain processes much better than an oral demonstration by a fellow employee. In fact, simulations can be used to enable practice and error-correcting in a safe environment. 6. People Results: This is the evaluation stage of knowledge application by employees. It also helps measure the degree of satisfaction and morale improvement experienced by employees, after applying knowledge management and eLearning training programs in the organization. 7. Customer Results: This measures the level of customer satisfaction and trust in the organization as a result of improved knowledge management practices. 8. Society Results: The publicity, press and social media sentiments about the organization. 9. Key Performance Results: The overall performance is articulated with organizational strategic goals. If performances are not up to par, eLearning training can be prescribed and administered. Achieving excellence in a business requires constant eLearning development and distribution. Knowledge is a precursor of innovation. Use the questions in this article to measure whether your company is moving towards organizational excellence. Then prescribe eLearning programs to fill the learning gaps. The post Pathway to Excellence through eLearning Programs appeared first on TalentLMS Blog.

To get this ‘whole brain’ for project success requires intentionally clarifying the two opposite roles.  Let’s clarify:To show competence, the PM must help the PS answer these questions accurately with a shared, consistent message:How often do the PS and PM meet?How often does the PS meet directly with executive stakeholders?When will the project be completed and transitioned to operations? What will we have as a business when the project is completed that we don’t have now?  What will be the ROI (Return on Investment)?What percentage of hours of the whole project are being used to manage the project? (strong projects are 10 - 25%)Are all key stakeholders actively involved in the project?The PS must also ask the PM these questions, as his or her leader:Where is your Project Charter?What are the prioritization of the constraints of the project (Time, Budget, Scope / Quality)? Where are we on this project right now (percentage done - time, budget, scope/quality as appropriate to the specific project)?What do you need that I can get you?  What keeps you up at night?How can I help you improve stakeholder collaboration together and with us?

Our approach to high potential pools and programs isn’t working. It’s time to think differently.

Gain a reputation for always being the one with new ideas and solutions to problems and you’ll quickly set yourself apart from the pact. That distinction requires brainpower. But trying to think on your feet under pressure before an audience or offering answers off the cuff in a meeting doesn’t always represent your best thinking.  So what exactly does improve your chances for analytical thinking? 1.  Argue your case or prove your point in writing

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Your organization spends a significant amount of time and money on employee development, but is it really worth the investment? Do your corporate learners actually remember the information and skills they’ll need on the job? In this article, we’ll share 7 tips for creating memorable online training courses. How To Create Memorable Online Training Courses Online training experiences are only effective if they are worth remembering. Corporate learners have to deal with busy schedules, distractions, and a variety of other issues that hinder knowledge retention. However, you have the power to create memorable online training experiences that leave a lasting impact on your employees. By doing so, you improve your online training ROI, increase employee productivity, and further the success of your organization. Online training experiences are only effective if they are worth remembering.Click To Tweet 1. Create A Spaced Online Training Strategy Hermann Ebbinghaus introduced "the forgetting curve" in 1885, which suggests that learners tend to forget information right after they acquire it. In fact, according to Ebbinghaus, roughly two-thirds of the information has vanished into thin air by the next day. However, you can outsmart the forgetting curve by spacing your online training over time. For example, employees participate in a customer service branching scenario, they proceed to another learning objective, and then, they come back to the previous one, by watching a customer-service related eLearning video that covers the same topic. Later in the online training course, they are asked to complete a customer service skills assessment to reinforce the ideas and concepts. Every online training activity increases knowledge retention and moves the information to their long-term memory. 2. Make It Practical And Personal The secret to remembering skills and tasks is being actively engaged in the online training process. One of the most effective ways to increase employee engagement is to make the online training experience personal and practical. Learners need to know that there is real value in what they’re learning and that every online training module and activity is custom tailored for them. For instance, a member of your IT department is more likely to participate in a troubleshooting online training simulation than a sales branching scenario. Your corporate learners are looking for targeted skills they’ll need in the workplace, not necessarily a "well-rounded" education. 3. Use Analogies And Real World Examples Analogies and real world examples involve a mental schema. Employees must relate new ideas to preexisting knowledge in order to strengthen this schema, which leads to greater knowledge retention. Analogies help them see the similarities between two related concepts, while real world examples tie into past experiences and cognitions. These learning tools also help to simplify complex ideas, as corporate learners are able to build on the foundation of a mental schema that they already have. In other words, they don’t have to start from scratch. 4. Add A Serious Game Changer Most people find it difficult to remember difficult concepts after they’ve completed their online training. However, these same individuals are likely to remember the emotionally compelling game they played the year before. eLearning games are entertaining, exciting, and engaging. They allow employees to build skills and master tasks without even realizing they are learning. There are two different routes to take: serious games and gamification. Serious games are similar to typical games, but offer some sort of educational value. Gamification is the process of adding game mechanics to your existing online training course design. For example, employees earn badges or points every time they complete an online training module. A great online gaming experience is going to stick with them, as is the information contained within it. 5. Incorporate eLearning Character-Driven Stories Long after we forget what the story is about or even who wrote it, we’re still able to recall every detail of our favorite eLearning characters. It’s important to have a well-crafted plot, but eLearning character development should be your main focus. Incorporate eLearning character-driven tales into your online training course design to form a deeper connection with your corporate learners. Make them feel for the eLearning characters and sympathize with their struggle. Include realistic elements that corporate learners can relate to, such as situations or obstacles they encounter on a daily basis. Include a good mix of intrigue and excitement to grab their attention. You may even consider hiring a professional writer to pen the story for you, or make it even more powerful by turning it into a narrated video for online training purposes with images and background music. 6. Pluck At Their Heart Strings Since we’re on the subject of music, a great eLearning soundtrack is one of the most effective ways to create memorable online training courses. Choose background tracks that convey the right mood. Add music to your online training simulations and scenarios to increase immersion. Figure out which emotion you are trying to evoke and then look for royalty-free tracks online. There are even a variety of sites that offer free music for your online training course. Just make sure that you use sound sparingly, as too much of a good thing can distract your employees. 7. Catch Their Eye Which are you more likely to remember: a text-based online training course that features bland colors, or a dynamic online training course that includes vivid imagery and vibrant hues? Chances are, your answer is the latter. Online training courses that boast a rich color scheme, graphics, charts, and compelling images are always more memorable. This is primarily due to the fact that they create an interactive and immersive online training atmosphere. On the other hand, you should avoid colors that are too bright or bold and cluttered page layouts. Only include visuals that are relevant and stick to a pallet of 3 or 4 colors. The goal is to make them remember the content, not to distract them with a busy course design. Is your online training course truly memorable? Or are employees going to forget the key takeaways the second they step away from the screen? Use these 7 tips to develop corporate eLearning courses that stay with them for years to come, even if you are working on a tight eLearning budget. Are you searching for ways to make your new hire online training more effective? Read the article 6 Tips To Create Online Onboarding Training Experiences That Stick to discover 6 tips for creating onboarding online training experiences that stick and ensure that your new employees are thrilled to join your company. The post 7 Tips To Create Memorable Online Training Courses appeared first on TalentLMS Blog.

What we call online learning, or eLearning, is not one single thing, but many. It’s like with cats, tigers, panthers and pumas. Sure, they’re all felines, but at the same time there are major differences in look, size, eating habits, natural habitat, and, last but not least, cuteness. Online learning can similarly be divided into several different types, based on various factors, such as whether it concerns educational or corporate use (online schools vs corporate training), the mode of consumption (web based, mLearning etc.), or even the scope of each individual learning unit (e.g. microlearning). In this series of posts we’ll examine how TalentLMS fares for each and every variety of online learning, starting with Compliance Training. Why Comply? First things first: what is this "compliance training" thing, and why should you care about it? Well, compliance training refers to the process of educating your employees on all the local and international laws and regulations that apply to their job positions, as well as any company policies that they have to comply with. Compliance training can be state mandated, if for example you can’t work in an industry without going through it; only necessary for working with particular clients, like if you apply for public tenders, supply the military; only necessary for operating in particular markets, in the case that you have to comply with local rules to sell your products to another country; or even completely optional but nice to have, such as training in business ethics, social responsibility and racial discrimination issues. If your company or parent company, in the case of a franchise or an enterprise with multiple facilities and subsidiaries, has its own internal guidelines, those should be considered a part of compliance training too, distinct from the general training in specific business skills. How TalentLMS handles Compliance Training At the heart of it, compliance training is not that different than most other forms of corporate training. As with anything else, it’s still based on specific learning materials that you have to incorporate in an online learning course. Which, incidentally, is where TalentLMS shines, allowing anybody to easily design, implement and deliver a comprehensive compliance training program (or, rather, programs). Create compliance training content… TalentLMS’ course creation tools, like the content editor, the advanced importing engine which allows you to leverage all kinds of third party files, from Word docs to videos, and its excellent support for tests, quizzes and surveys, make it easy to produce full blown compliance training content. …or buy ready-made content For compliance training in topics that are common to most businesses or even industries, you might find that you don’t even need to create anything. See, TalentLMS has a built-in learning content Marketplace, which, among other things, includes lots of professionally-made compliance training courses that you can just buy and immediately use in your LMS. The available courses include anything from generic material such as "Disability Awareness", "Bullying in the Workplace", "Professional Ethics", to specialized compliance courses for specific industries, like "Asbestos Awareness", "Work safely in the construction industry", "Excavator Training", and more. Certify compliance. Having your employees take compliance courses is not enough, especially for the law. You also need to make sure they have digested and understood the material, and keep track of their compliance related training and certifications. This is where TalentLMS’ built-in support for Certificates will come in handy. With TalentLMS you can create as many certifications as you need, configure their behavior, create custom reports to see statistics on certificates awarded based on course completions, and, of course, customize them to match your business branding (colors, logo, etc). (For most state related compliance training cases, you’ll only need to track which users have which certificates from within your learning platform. For other cases, where you want to print and hand out certificates to your employees, TalentLMS flexible certificate design will be handy). In cases where compliance is achieved after the employee passes not one, but multiple courses on different subjects, which is quite common in several professions, TalentLMS allows you to have certificates to be awarded upon course completion, or upon the completion of a set comprised of multiple related courses. Just make each course a pre-requisite for the others via the course’s "Availability rules" configuration, and have the final course award the certificate. And when the law, or the company, requires expiring certificates and re-examination, like what doctors, pilots and several other professions have to go through to retain their licenses, TalentLMS offers "time-limited" (auto-expiring) certificates — including the ability for admins to manually revoke any user’s certificate from within TalentLMS’ management page.   Legal protection In today’s litigation-heavy climate, it’s unavoidable, especially for larger businesses, to occasionally get involved in lawsuits with employees or customers. TalentLMS’ certificates and attendance logs can serve as proof that you have informed your employees about labor safety, customer protection laws, gambling rules, sexual harassment issues, ethical issues, etc., in case of legal dispute. Of course, consult with your legal team first to ensure whether this applies to your jurisdiction. Microlearning the microcompliance? Well, microcompliance is not actually a thing, but utilising microlearning for compliance training is. Of course, some compliance training material is (and is required by law to be) bulky and unreadable. But that doesn’t mean that you can’t assist your employees in digesting it by offering them a more lightweight, and more engaging microlearning version of the most important points. That’s doubly true when training your employees in non-mandatory, but nowadays essential topics, like sexual harassment and racial discrimination issues. Microlearning can help you highlight the gist of each issue, and teach your employees the professional behavior to which they are expected to comply. And since microlearning works best when done from a mobile device, and on the employees’ own chosen time and place, it’s a good fit for trying with TalentLMS for iOS and (soon) Android. The fully mobile client app to the Cloud-based TalentLMS service offers almost the full functionality of its desktop counterpart, but with a simpler, streamlined interface that makes microlearning shine. Plus, with support for content download and periodic progress syncing, it can work equally well online and offline. Conclusion In this post we had a look at what compliance training involves, and how you can do compliance training with TalentLMS. Stay tuned for the rest of the series, as we’ll continue to examine each and every kind of training that TalentLMS caters to. The post The many faces of eLearning #1: Compliance training with TalentLMS appeared first on TalentLMS Blog.

​When you are a PM, you are always looking for ways to make things more efficient. You look around for risks and problems, mitigating them as quickly and cheaply as possible. You listen very carefully to your stakeholders for not only what they say, but what they don’t say. In a sense, you are gazing back over the pieces of the project puzzle and trying to figure out how to get the puzzle done. You are always looking back at what has happened on the project.When you are a PS, you are always looking for new strategies to drive business success.  What are other people, other companies, and your competitors doing? You like new ideas and strategies. You listen very carefully to other leaders, and you race against each other to the next best idea. New ideas create a competitive advantage.  It’s not your job or charter to figure out all the details- someone else will do that. You are always looking forward at what could be.It’s hard to collaborate if you are on two different playing fields. The PM focuses primarily on what is, looking back at things that have already happened on a project. The PS focuses primarily on what could be looking forward at things that haven’t even been thought of yet. The worlds they peer into are opposite. In a meeting, the PS may dread the endless micro-details of problems that the PM shares while the PM can’t figure out the details of what the PS really wants other than a vague, beautiful future. The relationship can break  because of these biases. Conflict is not a given, though. Because their views are opposite, the PS and PM also have the opportunity to leverage each other’s’ views and fill each others blind spots.  Together, in collaboration, they can make a whole brain, perfect for project success.   

If you want to be a great leader, you must make personal growth a conscious choice and a continuous journey. In the book I wrote with Mark Miller, Great Leaders Grow, we say that growing to a leader is like oxygen to a deep sea diver: without it, you die. Not a physical death, of course—but if you stop growing, your influence will erode and, ultimately, you may lose the opportunity to lead at all. Simply knowing how to do your job today doesn’t secure your success tomorrow. It’s important to keep up with today’s rapidly changing work environment so that you can offer new ideas to keep your organization successful in the future.  Make time to read books and articles, watch videos, and listen to podcasts or audio books. Talk with peers or work with a mentor outside your normal work circle. Sign up for an online course or a workshop at your company. Join an association or a special interest group. The learning opportunities are endless—however, the time to invest in these activities is not. Many organizations enjoy a slower pace during the summer. Or maybe you take your vacation during the summer. Either way, why not utilize some of that time and make this your summer of learning! My wife, Margie, loves listening to audio books. She listens to business books, books that support her photography hobby, mystery novels, and a lot more. The great thing about this is she can do it sitting on a plane, riding in a car, or taking a walk—just about any time. I encourage you to do the same. Use some of your downtime to invest in your own knowledge. Take a book or article you’ve been meaning to read on that long flight or even to the beach. Listen to a podcast while you are exercising or sitting somewhere quietly enjoying the view. Get up a little earlier than usual and watch a TED talk online. Keep in mind that your learning doesn’t have to be focused on your work. Trying new hobbies is a learning experience and exploring new interests stimulates your thinking in general. You might think of a great idea for a home improvement project while you are practicing your golf swing. And that yoga class you’ve been promising to try for the past few months might provide the relaxation and focus you need to come up with an original recipe for dinner that uses healthy ingredients your family enjoys. Be creative and open to life’s opportunities—because when you stop learning, you stop leading!

In previous newsletters, I have shared with you the overwhelmingly consistent research (Gallup, Standish Group and more) that tells us that the #1 factor driving project success is a supportive, present Project Sponsor (PS). Ironically, most of the Project Managers (PM) in our workshops do not have this kind of relationship with their sponsor, and many don’t even know who their sponsor is. As my coach Mike Donahue says, the conversation is the relationship.  If you as PM are not having real, authentic and shared conversations with your PS regularly, the project will struggle. And quite possibly fail.  The truth is that most sponsors don’t know how to be a sponsor.  The PM doesn’t know how to be a sponsor either; they have plenty to do with their own responsibilities. In truth, some PMs don’t know how to do their role, either, and not having a sponsor just adds to the confusion. This drives frustration, guilt, avoidance, lack of conversation and poor decision making. The PS is supposed to play the strategic role, keeping the project connected to the business problem the project deliverables are designed to solve.  Lacking strategy since the PS is not being strategic, PMs run in circles screaming and shouting, delivering what they can and not what they should.  In this LearningFlash, as we celebrate Independence Day, I’m challenging you to be here now and lead on your projects. Lead your project teams, lead your stakeholders, lead you Project Sponsor and lead the way.  This month, you’ll read:Two Different Playing FieldsIt’s Not Leading if No One is Led: The PS and PM Roles1 + 1 = DONE: Collaborative PM/PS Strategies Kick Off: Scenarios to PonderRMA Contest: Last Months $100 winner and this month’s challenge

Each month we are going to publish a challenge. Send us an email explaining why you are the best at that challenge and how you solve it. If you win, we'll splash it all over social media, print it in the next newsletter and send you a $100 Amazon card. Email info@russellmartin.comFor clarification, each winner can only win once every six months so everyone has a chance for moola. July's Challenge: What innovative ways have you helped Project Sponsors and Project Managers work together more effectively?  OPTIONAL BONUS question which means it might strengthen your odds for winning:: How do you measure where you are on a project and communicate that to all? ​

Do your high-potentials see their development as a privilege or a right?

When the stakes are high and the pressure is on, players and leaders are often unable to handle the stress and the intensity of the game.

Leadership lessons from the man who transformed the U.S. Navy into the most powerful naval force the world has ever seen.

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I’m going to show you some numbers. And you’re going to want to see them sitting down. No, really. They’re going to be hard to believe. You’re going to see how small wastes get BIG very quickly. Specifically, I’m going to show you how minutes of wasted time turns into dozens, even hundreds, of employees not adding value, essentially NOT working. Wonder why you’re all so busy but never make any real progress? This could be one answer. But, first, let me ask you a question. How much time, on average, do you think people waste a day at work? When I say waste, I don’t mean people fooling around, i.e., not working. It’s them trying to work but problems and inefficiencies getting in the way of accomplishing it. For example, fixing other people’s mistakes, searching for information or rebooting a computer because it froze (again!). Think about how much time you’re forced to waste every day. Write that number down. Waste Starts Small Okay, here come the numbers; don’t freak out. I’ll walk you through it. Let’s take a company with 1,000 employees (that’s the number in the white box at top) and let’s assume employees work 230 days a year (that’s the number below 1,000). That’s the days in a year minus weekends, federal holidays and four weeks of PTO. In the lower half, the first column at left is the time, in minutes, that an individual employee is forced to waste every day trying to get work done. You can enter and compare up to four values. In this case, I entered 1 minute a day, 15 minutes a day, 30 minutes a day and 60 minutes a day. Minutes Become Hours The next column calculates the total HOURs those minutes grow to for the entire organization meaning all 1,000 employees in this case. One minute of daily waste per person equals 3,833 HOURS a year for the entire organization. 60 minutes or one hour of daily waste per person equals 230,000 HOURS of waste. The third column translates those wasted hours into full-time equivalent employees. In this case, 57,500 hours equates to 31 full-time employees. And 230,000 hours equates to 125 employees. So, if everyone is being forced to waste 60 minutes a day, it’s like 125 just performing wasteful activities, not getting ANY work done at all. That’s mindblowing! Increase Headcount? LMAO! If you walked into your company president’s office with a personal req to increase headcount by 125 people, what are the chances they’d agree and sign it? My guess is infinitesimal. They would require almost insurmountable justification. But, how easy is it at your company to make a work process more complex and burdensome? My guess is it’s VERY easy. Add another reviewer or approval signature to a requisition. Move a printer across the building. Create a new form to fill out. No big deal, right? WRONG! Add five minutes of waste to everyone’s day and it’s like you laid off 10 people. Estimate Your Company’s Waste How much waste did you estimate for your company? More than one hour? If you wrote down hours, then multiply by 60 to get minutes. Download my Lean Waste Calculator, input your numbers and estimate the impact. Believe me, it’s going to be much bigger than you ever imagined. Ask your work colleagues how much time they waste in a typical day, enter it in the spreadsheet and see the impact. So, now what? There are three common responses to this information, one of which is completely wrong. Stay tuned and next week find out more. Let’s Ride! Todd Hudson, Head Maverick The post Small Wastes Get BIG Quickly appeared first on Maverick Institute.

  In last week’s post, my Lean Waste Calculator showed you how the minutes that employees are forced to waste to accomplish work quickly turn into thousands of hours for the organization as a whole. These equate to full-time employees NOT adding value and the numbers get mindblowingly big. What was the impact of the number you estimated for your company? What was the reaction of people you shared this with?  I’d love to know. Email me at todd@maverickinstitute.com. So, you now know there’s a lot of wasted time and people in your organization. What happens next? Companies follow one of three paths. Path 1: Cajole and Admonish Execs and middle managers tell people to be more efficient, use their time wisely and not waste resources. This message might come through an email or be one topic at a departmental or all-company meeting. This is path completely ineffective and, frankly, pisses people off. They know they can’t do much to improve efficiency just by trying. They don’t control the business processes and resources. They can’t make the changes needed to eliminate waste. After the email or meeting, the topic never comes up again. This path is seen as (more) proof that management doesn’t know what’s really going on and isn’t serious about improvement. Path 2: Layoffs and…What? Some executives see these numbers as a rationale for layoffs. Instead of cutting waste, they cut people. They think with fewer resources work processes will naturally become more efficient. LOL! In your dreams! The remaining people still have to deliver products and services to customers on-time using the same wasteful processes as before, but now with fewer resources. They don’t have time to learn new problem-solving skills let alone stop and actually make improvements. They’re staying evenings and coming in on weekends just to keep up. This path results in more mistakes, thus even more waste, and lower morale. Path 3: Systematically Eliminate Waste Smart execs see these numbers as a challenge to work on every day. They create an environment and culture where employees can systematically reduce waste using Lean thinking and methods. People doing the work know what drives them crazy and wastes their time. They’re thrilled to get involved and make improvements! Just like with waste, small improvements get BIG quickly. Saving everybody 15 minutes a day is the equivalent of getting 31 employees back working productivity. WOW! With these additional hours and heads, organizations make even more improvements and create additional customer value. It’s the start of a ‘virtuous cycle’ of improvement. In addition, smart managers make it incredibly difficult to change processes to be more complex and burdensome. The hurdles to do this should be higher than hiring additional people. Remember, adding five minutes of waste to everyone’s day is like laying off 10 people. No one can afford that today. Drive business processes to be simple and visual. Let’s Ride! Todd Hudson, Head Maverick The post Cutting Out Waste (or Cutting Your Own Throat?) appeared first on Maverick Institute.