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About Michael
On Leadership Development...
On A Personal Note...
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LMS On A Shoestring
This is a story about the implementation of a successful on-line learning
initiative in two companies. Due to the success of the on-line learning
initiative (“E-Learning on a Shoestring”, e-learning magazine, published
10/17/02), we needed a more sophisticated approach to managing this
system. The solution would have to be a Learning Management System (LMS).
However, similar to the challenge of developing on-line materials, the
costs for LMS systems resulted in sticker shock. We had to resort to a
solution similar to what we did with on-line learning. We had to install
a LMS on a shoestring budget. What we stumbled on was a very effective
approach that cost us less than $30,000 to develop and introduce.”
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Transforming Your Training
Organization
The purpose of this article is to assist training departments learn the
strategic process required with positioning and transforming their
training function into a high value add, high performance organization.
The essence is to advise training leaders to become strategic partners
within their companies. The article is broken down into first
understanding what is meant by strategic partner. The majority of the
article reviews the steps to engage in a strategic assessment in order to
gather the needed data and information to align training to your
company's strategic goals and direction. Included are two case studies
portraying the impact that aligning your training function can make along
with solid ROI results.
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the pdf
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Training 101
Training can either be positioned as a strategic resource, assisting a
company towards achieving their goals, or as a cost center or “necessary
evil”, required but not desired. Both perceptions exist today and it is
often based on how well training is understood by the senior management
of the company. Perceived as a value and strategic resource, training is
recognized as a powerful tool to enable all levels of personnel to
function in their position in the most cost effective and productive
manner. Here you often find elite status of these functions often
attaining “Corporate University” status and funding. If perceived as a cost
center, training is often expected to perform full training duties with
“corporate scraps” while under constant scrutiny and pressure to reduce
costs until eventually outsourced. There tends to be a direct correlation
between companies who invest in their personnel including training, and
the overall success of the company. Being privileged to be a part of both
types of organizations, along with management experience outside of the
training function, has helped me to learn a more effective way of managing
these departments. This is dependent however upon positioning the
function well with the senior management. This paper serves as a means to
educate senior management on the basic aspects of an effective training
department along with understanding how to measure the effectiveness of
this department.
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E-Learning On A Shoestring
In only six months, e-learning has become a very viable method of
providing training at Jabil Circuit. On average, we reduced the amount of
class time by six hours. Considerable cost savings were generated as a
result of less in-class time on the part of both the participants and
instructors. And our investment was minimal.
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the pdf
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A Successful Blended Learning
Strategy
There may be reluctance in
transitioning instructor-led training (ILT) to a blended learning format.
This may be due to resistance on the part of the organization or training
department to change existing classroom session formats. Another reason I
believe is more prevalent, is not knowing how. The case study below is an
example of how our training department made a very successful transition
prior to knowing what blended learning meant. The change began with a
familiar story to most training organizations, a need for change, doing
more with less, reducing the learning curve with better trained
personnel. The change in this case began with our technical training
programs. Our success in this area led to the transformation of the
leadership development initiatives using the same format. The case study
discussed here describes the method we used and the results that were
achieved.
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Putting Together An
Inexpensive PowerPoint On-line Module
The question I am most often
asked is how do you create your on-line training programs. When I respond
by stating that all we use is PowerPoint, the most common reaction is a
look of puzzlement or shame. Those with the puzzled looks are amazed at
the response, often anticipating some name of an expensive content
development application or company that we outsource this to. Those with
the shamed reaction are often looking down and wondering why are we so
primitive.
The answer lies in the fact that we have been incredibly successful using
this approach, an approach I refer to as Keeping It Simple and
Straightforward (KISS). The background for how we developed our
successful on-line learning center further exemplifies how companies can
reap the rewards of on-line learning without having to spend much (see
articles on “e-learning on a shoestring” and “LMS on a shoestring”). This
article will provide you with a step-by-step tutorial for how we develop
our modules.
Another key point to stress up front is the resources that we use, or
better said, don't use, to develop our training. Part of my KISS
methodology for training has shown us that we do not need instructional
designers, multimedia specialists, web developers, etc. as a part of our
training department. Instead, I simply turn on a small group of technical
and soft skill trainers, and a ton of subject matter experts, to using
PowerPoint. Here is how we do it.
By clicking on the link you can see an example of how we took the lecture
components from a Change Management class and placed them in a PowerPoint
module (Note: we use Presentation Pro to covert to a Flash format as it
will appear when you click on the link). Users would take this module and
then attend a 2 hour lab where we conducted several exercises.
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Understanding
Your Training Process
Consistent with any
improvement methodology is the premise that if you don’t understand your
process, how can you improve it? So how do you define training as a
process? Figure 1 is an example of a high level process flow diagram
outlining the key steps in the training process. I will review the basics
of this process as it relates to the SIPOC concept and then outline ways
that this has helped in the development of our training procedure and
defining the metrics used to measure the effectiveness of our training
initiatives.
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Transforming The Technical
Instructor Role
For a long time the role of technical trainer has been
considered at the bottom of the totem pole within the training department
and a necessary evil within the organization. Their sole purpose was to
be a resource to get the hourly personnel up to speed asap. Companies
often turned to their existing hourly employees to fill these roles,
often considered to be subject matter experts from the area needing
training. For the instructor it was a break from the routine they left,
and for the training department, it was an inexpensive resource to get
the job done.
There was not a lot of glory in this role. For some companies it was
difficult to recruit for these positions since employees realized that
training departments were the first to go during tough times. For others,
there was really no place to go since degrees were often needed to
advance within the training organization or within the company. It was
basically a dead end job where they were able to get a break from the
floor and make a little bit more per hour.
With the transformation of my last 3 training management functions into
highly effective training departments, I discovered a new paradigm
regarding the role of technical instructors, and how these individuals
played a crucial role in making this transformation.
With the combination of providing them with the right organizational
structure, coaching and most of all belief in them, they became powerful
performance consultants, who by the way did training.
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Creating A Blended Leadership Development Series (and on
a shoestring budget)
Over the years, the content changed little, but the means
to deliver more effective training changed dramatically. As a long time
practitioner in Corporate America I realized that Supervisors, Managers
and Leaders still needed the development, but no longer had the time to
spend in day long classes and seminars. Therefore the field of training
had to change its delivery format to accommodate these needs. What you
will find in a blended leadership development series is a comprehensive
set of materials covering the spectrum of what supervisors, managers and
leaders need to know and develop to be effective in their roles, along
with a variety of ways to deliver the training to the end user.
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