Ethics Training for Employees?

When ethics thraing became all the rage in businesses in the 1980 and 1990's, many wondered why.  Many are still wondering why.  Many government contracts require certain "compliance" training be taught to for companies to get and keep thosee contracts.  Do this requirements really make people more honorable and willing to do what is right or instead make them want to find "work-arounds" rather than have honest values and good morals.  Ethics training in  many corporations is a safety net, just-in-case they get a legal suit filed against them.  It is not just ethics, the same legal safety net idea of training applies to sexual harrassment and diversity-type training as well.  Why do people question these types of training?  

• Why Most Ethics Training Sucks
• 4 Hard Truths About Ethics and Compliance Training
• Ethics Trainings Are Even Dumber Than You Think
• Ethics Training Is Missing the Mark

Perhaps the reason people do not see ethics training as relevant is that they believe the basic principles should have been established elsewhere.  Morality and doing right is supposed to be developed in church.  Good character, valuing others, respectful manners, and not stealing is supposed to be imbued by parents through motivation and discipline.  Good conduct is supposed to be taught in schools.  Ethics and honesty is supposed to be reienforced in college.  So are ethics still passed up from youth to adulthood or is this an old-fashioned idea? 

In the workforce, ethics is a leadership issue more than an employee issue.  Leaders must be a character example of what they want the corporate ethos to be.  If the manager pads his expense statements, how can he expect his employees to be honest?  If a supervisor takes home office supplies for her children to use as their school supplies, how can she trust her employees not to steal from the company?  Instead of (or at least along with) off-the-shelf ethics training, leaders need to be examples of the values they want in their employees.  Perhaps leaders also need to get involved with their communities to help make sure the old ways of training up a child or teen in the way they should act and think are still taught. 

Requiring Skills Over College Degrees for Employee Placement

 Once upon a time, people were hired for jobs based on the skills they had for doing the job and the desire to learn new tasks via on-the-job training.  In the same line, people received career  promotions based on their knowledge of the company values, personal productivity, ability to supervise work tasks, flexibility to step when an employee was out, and accountability to reaching company goals.    

Then came the idea that college degrees were more important than actual ability when hiring new employees or promoting within the company.  After all, they could attend training to learn company values and work processes.  For some jobs the subject of the degree was key, for others the type of degree did not matter so much as as having the diploma.  Training organzations grew to fill the demand for in-house trainng.  At the same time, Human Resource officers were touting "general studies" as a rounded education that would result in a more relevant and modern work force. Followed by training departments being the first department to go if the company had to do lay-offs because products or services were not selling.

As higher education became less educational, the any degree at the Bachelor level and generic MBAs no longer  help companies move forward and meet their goals, the age of "certification" and "specialization" came about.  In other words, companies were returning to requiring skills necessary for immediate success on the job.  Harvard Business Review says "Skills requirements will overtake degree requirements as the'paper ceiling crumbles." in 9 Trends That Will Shape Work in 2024 and Beyond.  Finally, managers and Human Resources decide it is time to return to hiring for skills over eduction. This is not a move backwards, but a return to common sense for business success.  Forbes agrees "Changes in hiring practices that emphasize selecting candidates with the specific experiences and skills needed for a role, rather than qualities such as educational attainment or age, are a part of the industry's response and will continue to be a strong trend." in their article The 10 Biggest Business Trends For 2024 Everyone Must Be Ready For Now.  

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Great List of Business Management and Success Quotes

Inspirational quotes are used in motivational speeches, business presentations, and training sessions as a way to drive home the desired  principles.  People remember quotes that resonate with them or are from famous people they respect the opinion of.  

This post is the beginning a few success quotes that will resonate with most business owners and professional people.  Starting with the Will Rogers quote ("Even if you're on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there.") in the image, which applies to anyone with a vision or purpose - whether it is personal or professional.  Mr. Rogers is basically saying if you have an idea to implement or a job to do, get moving on it or someone else will and you will get left behind feeling crushed by your lack of momemtun.  

I want this to be a good list that continues to grow as a great reference for others.  Please feel free to add your own favorite quote to the list by including it as a comment on this post.  

"If you don't drive your business, you will be driven out of business." - B. C. Forbes

"Great companies are built on great products." - Elon Musk

"And while the law of competition may be sometimes hard for the individual, it is best for the race, because it ensures the survival of the fittest in every department." - Andrew Carnegie

"There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure." - Colin Powell

"First-rate people hire first-rate people; second-rate people hire third-rate people." - Leo Rosten 

Low Value Programs Killing Business Is Killing Jobs

Do things that create profit matter for business anymore?  Does a little money from the government outweigh the value of business reputation or the big money from customers?

 It seems that the writer of the Forbes article  "The Business Case For Diversity (DEI) May Be Backfiring" thinks it should not matter as much as the feelings of potential employees - not current staff.  If a company does not value generating profit, then how can it afford to keep or hire employees?  If it does not have innovative, trust-worthy, flexible, and qualified personnel; how can a business succeed?  These programs are not resulting in qualified hires, instead they have led to experienced employees complaining about and leaving some companies.  Most employees complaining said they felt less valued so their productivity, creativity, quality, and participation in teamwork suffered.  Those employees then exposed why they left and showed samples of training matierials in videos and on social media.  That exposure led to customers finding out, about the programs that were vastly different from what they valued and then looking for alternative companies to fill their needs.

Still want diversity and equality?  "Why Diversity Programs Fail" in Harvard Business Review says to stop forcing re-written EEO-type initiatives based on race or gender, instead promote volunteer training and mentorship.  The studies this article shares show people get along better working together equally, rather than being told what to do or not do based on gender or race criteria. It now seems that diversity and equity programs tend to divide people instead of increasing inclusiveness, motivation or unity.  The technology areas seem to be suffering the most due to falling quality in systems because of limited qualified candidates in quota related hiring.  So why do government agencies want force or reward these programs?  Why do consultants still push the programs if they do not meet the client's needs? Are the consultants hurting the economy by personally getting richer if their client companies profilts decline or start on a path of going-out-of-busines?  

Understand these terms and the history:

• DEI =Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion  - 2021 Executive Order  
• Government subsidized on-the-job re-training to promote exclusion
• Government sponsored education prior to joining workforce to discourage equality
• Education substituted SEL & CRT (mutation of Karl Marx's Critcal Theory) 
• EEO =Equal[ity] Employment Opportunity (jobs) - 1964 Civil Rights Act of Congress
• Open education and job options to promote a diverse workforce at all levels  

What is the difference between Equity and Equality?  Basically, some are treated differently or all are treated equally.  The majority of people want to be treated equal to others, a few want to be better than others, while none want to be less than others.  Most workers find these forced re-training programs more divisive, not inclusive.  So which kind of employer should companies try to be?  Common sense says treat everyone the same. If not the same, at least based on productivity and responsibility instead of some physical trait that they have no control over. Will businesses expect education to change or will they continue to look for certifications rather than degrees for competent people?  Will human resources have to go back to looking for qulaiied workers tather than some abstract number?

If installing these programs adversely affects ingenuity, morale, productivity, motivation, or profits; will it kill business?  If businesses get boycotted when customers find out they are doing this newest training, will that affect their bottom-line profits?  After seeing what this program does to business, should this acronym be redefined as Death to Empowerent and Innovation? (Or as recently published Discrimination, Exclusion, Indoctrination in Twitter MEME as well as the trending hashtags #DeathToDEI and DEIisDead...)  If businesses die, where will people work?  Logically, when there are less businesses, then there will be less jobs.  Less jobs means killed jobs, which means fewer opportunities for employment.

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Ways Businesses Protect Employees and Inform Others During Global Isolation

Very few businesses today are not global in some way.  It is easy to think of large corporations as global because they may have offices in more than one country.  However, any company that has an on-line business is most likely global as they may be sending products or services anywhere in the world.  Even if a small business does not go outside their home country for customers, they may be getting materials from a supplier based in another country.  Face it, current times meant a global economy.  Anything that happens outside your country can possibly impact your business.

INC magazine says Coronavirus May Already Be Affecting Your Business.

What can you do to help your employees at this time?  If they must be at work because your business is one that supports citizens in time of crisis, then provide the materials to protect your employees and customers.  During a pandemic/epidemic or natural disaster, for most this would be hand sanitizer, gloves, soap, water, googles, face masks, and a way to communicate with superiors and where necessary other agencies. For a specialized workforce, there may be additional requirements to meet industry standards.  It is important to provide a safe workplace or outside work environment for your employees.  Knowing you are providing this for them will keep them going and will give some comfort to your concerned customers as well.

If your business is important but is not a support organization, then provide ways for employees to work-at-home (such as telecommuting or virtual meetings), take on-line training/education courses and attend webinars, or take time-off (such as sick leave, LOA, vacation, or furlough) without losing their jobs.  Although your business is important to you, it may not be key during national or global times of crisis.   If this is the case, you may want to consider letting people take time off and if necessary closing for a short period of time.

Forbes magazine shared Impact Of The Coronavirus On Business and the economy, as well as statistics and  plans for What Businesses Can Do In Response To The Coronavirus.

This is why many organizations are taking the time to communicate with their employees, suppliers, and customers what they are doing during local or global difficulties.  Although a few may complainthey are getting to many emails, most will be comforted by the shared information,  Also a few businesses  are going beyond email and taking the time to use social media or upload videos about what they are doing or how they are supporting efforts to keep both out-of-work employees and customers informed.

The new business slogan to customers and employees becomes "let us take care of you while you take care of yourself."

Ten Tips for Wonderful Webinars

Webinars are a great way to share knowledge or give presentations to multiple audiences at one time.  People from multiple locations can connect at the same time to hear your message without travel requirements or tie zone issues.  Consider webinars as an e-learning option for training and as a marketing tool for sales prospecting.  Below are ten tips to help you have a problem-free webinar.

10 Tips for Wonderful Webinars

1. Select a webinar platform.  If the organization hosting the webinar does not have a webinar/virtual meeting provider, you will need to research ones that might fit your need.  Most platforms offer a free short trial period you may use to host a small webinar to get started.
2. Alleviate technical issues.  Presenters should use a landline connection over WIFI option to prevent possible downtime. For the best voice sound, use a microphone headset rather than the mic inside your computer.  Turn off any pop-up notifications to prevent distractions during presentation.  Also be in a room where there will be no background noises or voices to interfere with the audio.  
3. Have a technical assistant or moderator, if possible.  This allows the presenter to  concentrate on delivering content rand answering questions over clicking on the computer.  Verify with each other when the pre-webinar check-in time together will be , presentation expectations, and any post-webinar activities.
4. Provide a short speaker bio, if you have a moderator who will be introducing the webinar.  This is especially important if there will be several speakers in a panel or webinar series.  It gives the moderator relevant data on presenter to share before introducing the current topic.
5. Keep it short at 30-60 minutes, but no more than two hours.  People get tired of staring at a screen even if the topic is absorbing.  If your message requires more time, consider making it a multi-part series over a few weeks instead of a long session.
6. Promote the webinar.  Webinars target to a specific group should be communicated via email to target audience.  Open webinars may be marketed via email and/or on social media.
7. Have a photo of the presenter to include with bio and show on introductory/closing slides.  This way the audience knows what you look like.  This will allow you to skip having a presenter camera on you when you are speaking.  Presenter cameras are geared for emulating face-to-face meetings, not for presentations where speaker may be glancing down at notes or on-line ressonses.
8. Prepare a slide show for display during the webinar that is interesting and informative.  Keep slide text as concise as possible, use appropriate statistics,  have relevant graphics often, and use animations/transitions to get attention.  In virtual presentations there is no eye-contact so you will need show more slides and spend less talking time per slide than if you awee doing a live presentation.You may want to give the audience the option of downloading a copy of the slid es to follow-along and make notes.
9. Practice your presentation for attention-getting delivery and with your assistant for technical delivery.  With the technical practice session, include testing pauses for: audience to read statistics or graphs, taking polls, giving quizzes, and answering questions.  
10. Consider recording the webinar so that people unable to attend the original virtual session or missed part of a series has the option of watching at a later date.  You may want to limit the amount of time the recording is available to eliminate the possibility of people seeing out-of-date information.

Ten New Leader Assumptions

Whether a person is hired or promoted into a leadership position, they are expected to have certain skills.  If they are experienced, they will have many of the skills and talent required of good leaders.  Those with experience will know they need continuous learning to become great leaders.

However, people who are new at leadership may fell they have to jump right in and do rather than learn.  Or they may be afraid to ask for training or mentoring as it may make them appear "not up to the job" they have been entrusted with.  Either idea is a false assumption.  Bad leaders choose not to learn, good leaders choose to gain what is need as it is need, great leaders seek to learn continually.  Below are some false new leader assumptions that can be improved with appropriate mentorship, by reading good books on the topic, or through formal training.

10 New Leader Assumptions

1. Leaders know how to communicate with their followers.
2. Leaders can facilitate effective meetings.
3. Leaders know how to inspire and motivate others.
4. Leaders have excellent time management skills.
5. Leaders know how to solve problems and make decisions.
6. Leaders understand vision, mission, and objectives of the organization.
7. Leaders know how to discipline and reward their employees.
8. Leaders are technically competent.
9. Leaders know how to get necessary resources.
10. Leaders have ethics and are trustworthy,

Over Two-Dozen Ideas for Continuous Learning

Continuous learning (aka Lifelong Learning) has been touted as a management must before the dawn of quality improvement programs.  Why has this remained key to business success when other management concepts have come and gone?  It is important to continue to grow to keep up with changes and motivate people.  Whether the changes are economical, environmental, societal, or technical - to remain successful leaders must keep up with what is going on, not just in their industry but across many areas.
 

Knowledge is power? No. Knowledge on its own is nothing, 

but the application of useful knowledge, now that is powerful.” -  Rob Liano

So how do you make continuous learning happen in a company or as an individual?  There are multiple method to incorporate the continuous learning concept.  These can include some or all of the below methods for increasing knowledge.  

1. Ask questions or for help on a new or difficult task
2. Observe how others do tasks to experience new ideas or learn different ways to do things
3. Watch videos/DVDs on relevant subjects
4. Listen to professional podcasts
5. Subscribe to relevant blogs or e-newsletters
6. Get feedback from others and work towards improving as needed
7. Join a professional association/society and go to some of the meetings for networking
8. Work with or as a coach or mentor - learning experiences are gained on both sides 
9. Develop a skills matrix, create a goal plan, and track progress
10. Read books or skill-specific magazines/journals
11. Find relevant on-line articles, case studies, research, or white papers
12. Complete workbook exercises, or team-building activities, or computer-based/on-line quizzes
13. Hold leadership reading clubs or business book discussion groups
14. Look for on-the-job training (OJT) opportunities
15. Go to internal training classes and/or external workshops
16. Participate in or lead seminars or webinars  - learn by sharing time with others
17. Take part in Continuing Education Unit (CEU) courses
18. Get a higher degree in your field or another degree in a different or related field
19. Enroll in a certification program that increases skill-levels
20. Benchmark/visit other companies or department within your organization
21. Knowledge share with others via virtual meetings or a computerized database
22. Volunteer for projects or teams that allow stretching current skills or learning new ones
23. Check out leadership and educational programs on public television (PBS)
24. Attend or facilitate presentations, face-to-face meetings, and Lunch N Learns - learn in a short time with others
25. Plan quarterly, biannual or annual strategic meetings or team-building events
26. Check into conferences, trade shows or product showcases

Continuous learning not only benefits leaders and other individuals by making them more knowledgeable, it benefits companies as well by providing better equipped and flexible employees.  Remember for one to truly learn something, an opportunity to apply and use the gained knowledge is also necessary.  So be sure that the new skills can be practiced on-the-job,  Knowledge is information, however wisdom/expertise is only gained in the application of knowledge.

See also The Business Journal article 5 Steps to Developing a Continuous-Learning Culture.

Learn At Lunch: A Great Team, Sales, and Management Training Option

Learn At Lunch-Training Presentations 

Whether you call it learn-at-lunch (American Management Association term, circa 2013) or lunch-and-learn (also Lunch N Learn or "Lunch & Learn" terms @2007), this is a great option for disseminating short training nuggets. It can save both time and money when it comes to employee learning.

Please note, the older terms of Bring-Your-Own-Lunch Training or Brown Bag Seminars (started in the 1980's by offering short technical topics or product introductions) are dropping in popularity by business organizations due to language acceptability and labor issues.

Use learn-at-lunch time to:

• Introduce team-building concepts or simple business skills that do not require physical activities or special equipment
• Familiarize sales and customer service representatives with new products, services, or processes
• Encourage supervisors, managers, leaders, and facilitators to adopt new procedures, attitudes, or policies

For corporate events, nothing says says you have to use the term Learn-at-Lunch.  Instead you can even make your lunch menu a fun match to the topics.  Some ideas might be:  Tacos & Tools, Pizza N Presentations, Sandwiches & Sales, Training N Treats, Salad and Service, or Noodles & News. Get the idea?

For tips on Learn at Lunch, see:

• Why you would want to use this training option, review business productivity post The Marvelous Method of the Lunch and Learn!
• What to consider for short training modules via instructional design article Lunch N Learn: A Dollar Saving Training Option and Peak Performance Solutions post 10 Questions Leading to Impactful Lunch and Learn Topics.
• How to start this training option in posts containing Five Tips for Planning Learn-at-Lunch Events and How to Get Topics and Participants for Learn-at-Lunch Events.

How to Get Topics and Participants for Learn-at-Lunch Events

How do you get topics for learn-at-lunch training sessions?

If you want to start lunch and learns but do not where to start, do an on-line survey (with SurveyMonkey or Social Media Polls) to see what topics people are most interested in to get started.  You can provide 10 topic areas and request those surveyed rank them in order of preference.  You may also want an optional fill-in the-blank field to capture ideas you did not think of for prioritizing in the next survey.  Be sure to provide a “do by” date to encourage timely responses.  The easy decision then is to start with the topic with the highest ranking and move down the list.  This type of survey could be done quarterly or annually to test new topics or determine which ones to repeat.

How do you get people to attend Learn-at-Lunch events?

The obvious answer is to make them worth attending.  How do you do that?  Below are a few ideas to think about for mixing it up and making it worthwhile for your training participants.

• Do not just do lecture and a PowerPoint presentation!  You can make it interactive by adding games, case study review, quizzes, as well as "Q&A."  Make it more interesting by including skits, vendor or customer comments, video clips, demonstrations and music if appropriate.  You might find something funny on YouTube that could drive home your primary point. It should be so interesting that people want to come to the next one!
• Consider capturing all the questions on a flip chart or marker board, if the lunch and learn involves a strategic change.  Then when you get the best answers from management, you can publish it as a FAQ document for all employees to access.  You may also want to record the event so you can share it with more people via the company intranet.
• Find good presenters, people who are knowledgeable and can make their topic interesting!  You do not want a monotone voice reading slides and putting the audience to sleep after they eat.  Instead you want people to go away with more knowledge than they came with.  Presenters can be internal to the organization or motivational speakers from outside the company.
• Make sure you space and equipment works in advance.  Not understanding how to link in remote attendees or on-line data is not only frustrating to them and the speaker, it is distracting to those physically sitting in the room.  If you mess up with technology and spend too much time fixing it, people may not come back to the next event.
• Consider success sharing among teams and projects as potential lunch and learn topics too.  Let your teams shine and share to help others improve and grow.  This should be a learning session, not an idea generating meeting or project completion party – those should be separate individual team events.

Once you have your topics and your schedule planned.  Get the word out!  Start with emails and do not stop there.   Promote it with flyers, bulletin boards, or posters prominently placed around your business facilities.  If your organization has a newsletter or corporate e-calendar make sure your lunch and learns get listed there too.

Five Tips for Planning Learn-at-Lunch Events

Below are five (5) tips to consider when planning a Learn at Lunch training event in your company. Each of the five tips include questions to ask before proceeding with event planning.  

1. Define the best time to hold your sessions.  When do most of your employees break for lunch 11-12, 11:30-12:30, or 12-1?  Choosing a time-frame that most prefer will help you get more people in the seats.
2. Decide how often you want to offer these sessions. Should training events be once a quarter or once a month?  Or do you have an immediate need to disseminate information or want to break it into multiple modules where weekly events over a short time period may be more appropriate?  Choosing a frequency of events will help you arrange for presenters and plan promotions.  If you choose to do weekly events, make them the same day each week so it easier for your employees to plan for.
3. Determine if you want variety of attendees or a targeted group.  Could you provide lunch or would it be better to tell your employees to Bring-Your-Own?  For a targeted learning, people will typically want to attend without extra incentives.  For a varied audience, the extra incentive a free lunch may get more people to show up.
4. Discover a location that will work best.  Depending on the audience size, can you find a room large enough with table space as well as seating?  If you are providing lunch, is there room to set-up an area for people to quickly move through when selecting their meal before the training portion begins?  If you are not providing food and expect a large crowd, can you bring food and drink into an auditorium-type space and do the seats provide a fold-up writing space that may be larger enough for notes and food?
5. Deliver meaningful content.  What topics are people do you plan to present?  Who can you get to present each topic in an interesting or unique way?  This is especially important for reviewing old material where you want people to see it differently and/or not be bored by hearing the same thing again.

Even though lunch and learns are more casual and shorter events than a training workshop, you still need to organize presenters, handouts, facilities, equipment, and food in advance.

*These same five suggestions above will work for non-profit associations who prefer to do lunch meetings instead of dinner events – just replace the word “employees” with “members” when reading the tips.

Five Top Business Leadership Issues

Each year, I search business articles for common leadership themes and issues.  These business leadership issues are usually presented sometime in the first quarter of each year.  This year it was harder to find the top leadership issues as they seemed to be all over the place!  Some articles had the common threads of technology use, company culture, leader's personal needs awareness, change management, and staff/HR issues.  Although their approaches were somewhat different and in some cases contradictory!

Of the common leadership topics, below are the 5 most discussed business leadership issues in order of frequency of appearance in articles.  Although many have been covered on this blog before, I wrote on a few of the highest ranking concepts in posts and  linked to them in the numbered list below as well.

Five Top Leadership Issues 

1. Gender diversity (encourage more female leadership)
2. Continuous learning (promote training and education) 
3. Change management (communicate what changes and what remains the same)
4. Company culture (emphasize accountability and lead by example)
5. Generational gaps/diverstiy (are no longer high priority issue, yet need to remain aware of it)

Below are a few leadership articles you may want to check out on other issues:

• Employee engagement via technology or face-to-face in Leadership Imperative: Getting Back to Human from HR Technologist
• CEO's talk about regulations, scaling, and customer relations in  9 Biggest Business Challenges from Fast Company
• 4 Technology and 3 Staff issues in 10 Hot Leadership Topics from Development Dimensions International
• 6 items to consider in Leadership Trends to Watch For Now to 2022 from Forbes
• In the UK, team building and other employee diversity issues were listed in Five Leadership Trends to Watch from CEO Today 

Nine Motivational Ideas to Increase Employee Engagement

Below are nine ideas to increase both motivation and engagement in the workplace.  A few are simple employee relation concepts or team building processes.  Others require more communication effort or either human resources (HR) or upper management support.  

See if you can tell which ideas fall under motivation and which fall under engagement per the chart in infographic on the left.

1. Give your employees the opportunity to do what they do best!
2. Provide helpful tools and procedures to get quality work done efficiently.
3. Provide a better work-life balance and encourage personal well-being.
4. Recognize employee efforts, team achievements, and project milestones.
5. Improve job security and implement transparency at work.
6. Provide training and support for professional and personal development.
7. Let employees know they work for a company with a great reputation.
8. Get feedback from employees on what to do better.
9. Encourage personal interactions and relationships between co-workers.

After reading this list, determine what you can do immediately.  Then set goals for bringing the other items into your organization. 

10 Questions When Choosing an eLearning Authoring Tool

With each eLearning authoring tool boasting its unique selling features, it can be tough finding one that fits your specific content creation needs. Since we all have different needs, backgrounds and proficiency with new technology, there is no universal tool.  Below are 10 questions you should ask yourself when choosing an eLearning authoring tool.

1. What level of interactivity do we want in an authoring tool?  Ensuring that a course is engaging can be more difficult than producing the content itself. Some form of interactivity is essential to ensure that learners stay focused and retain information. Adding interactivity to a course can vary in difficulty, so it’s important you choose a tool that fits with your skills and resources.

2. Do we desire video delivery features in the tool?  With decreasing attention spans, video has become one of the most popular eLearning formats. With that in mind, ensuring that the tool you choose offers at least basic video is a good idea. Otherwise, adding video to a course can require a significant amount of external resources.

3. Do we need a tool that offers development collaboration?  This really depends on your work environment. Will you be working solo or collaborating with a team? The best collaborative authoring tools will be cloud-based. If you will be collaborating intensely, real-time collaboration is an ideal feature for efficient collaboration.

4. Should our courses be mobile friendly?  If your courses will viewed outside of a classroom setting, they must be mobile-friendly! This is where you should be looking at the publishing output (Flash, HTML5, etc.). Ensure that courses can be accessed and interacted with on all major devices.

5. What is more important to us, a short learning curve or more creative options?  With most tools, you get what you give. Meaning, a complex tool will likely be capable of more impressive results than an easy tool with minimal options. The complex tool will have a much steeper learning curve, but will typically offer much more creative freedom. It’s just a matter of knowing the scope of your needs, resources and capabilities.

6. Which fits our needs better, a desktop tool or web-based tool?  While both types of tools have their pros and cons, web-based authoring tools are increasingly popular. Some advantages include universal access, no installations, automatic updates and more. The opposite is generally true for desktop software. However, there are some benefits, such as offline access, quicker response time and more control over data.

7. Will we require any analytical data on learners?  Will you be tracking learner data through your LMS or must you rely on built-in analytics? Usage data is helpful in understanding how learners engage with your course and whether its design is effective. Some tools offer built-in analytics, but it also depends on the data you require.

8. Is it compatible with our LMS or LRS?  If you are currently using an LMS or a LRS, it’s important to know if the tool is compatible. The same goes for other technology you will be using in the content creation process.

9. How does it fit into our training budget?  Simplicity tends to go hand in hand with price. Below are key points to consider when reviewing pricing plans:

·         Free trial offers

·         Price per authoring versus team pricing plans

·         Monthly storage included and cost of additional storage

·         Monthly payments or yearly contract

·         Number of perks available as add-ons

·         Flexibility of cancellation policy

10. Are there any hidden costs we may not be aware of?  Consider all the features you need relative to how much you are willing to spend. Also consider the costs of external tools that are not included in the plan you are considering buying. For instance, external branching software can cost a few hundred dollars extra per month.

You should now have a good idea of what to look for when choosing an eLearning authoring tool.

Three Top Soft Skills Leaders Need Training On

 Have you ever wondered what benefit your business leadership gets from attending training workshops?  Did they not learn everything they needed in their MBA program that included finance, running a business, and strategic thinking? The answer is NO.  To stay current, good leaders are always learning and improving especially in the area of “soft skills.”

According to Paula Ketter, Editor of TD Magazine, “Leaders in the 21st century require myriad skills to be successful, and those skills are becoming more diverse every day. It is imperative that training professionals incorporate many of these soft skills into leadership programs for high potentials.”

What are the “soft skills” leaders need most?  Leadership development experts run the gambit on what they say are key skills.  Briefly listed below are the three top skills you can find on most of their lists.

1. Communication (see related Business Insider article) – This includes more than presentation or speaking skills, which may or may not have been offered in a business degree program.  Great leaders also listen well, gather input from all levels of the organization, and are good negotiators.
2. Self-Awareness – Whether this as defined as emotional intelligence (defined in Inc. article), behavior traits (example in Business News Daily) , or personality style (article from Fast Company); great managers understand themselves and acknowledge that others may think differently.  This knowledge allows them to: emphasize with others, develop change management plans with employee reaction in mind, plus modify their communication methods to better influence and motivate others.
3. Trustworthiness  (see related Forbes articles on Why and How with 8 C’s) – Building trust is a key component of customer relationships, collaboration with vendors, and employee team building; so it should be in the top three.  However, trust appears on many experts list, although lower than the more easily taught process skills.  

For thoughts on other leadership challenges, check out prior posts on Five Common Leadership Challenges and CEO Challenges.  For a list of additional leadership training ideas, check out older posts Leadership Development – Report Confirms Top Three Needs and Leadership Training – Report Indicates Top Four Needs.

If you can build and follow a process around it, then it typically can be defined as hard or technical skill wheras soft skills are not easily mapped into a step-by-step process. 

If you are designing or looking to buy a leadership development program, you may also want to read the 8-page white paper by Phillips: You Can Measure the Impact and ROI for Soft Skill Programs.

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Babysitting Teaches Ten Management Skills

As a teen, I was a babysitter.  Back then; this was simply a way to earn extra money.  I recently realized that a lot of what I learned babysitting (especially when working with multiple children), I also applied to working with business teams (as their leader) and with employees (as their manager). 

Below are the top 10 things I learned as a babysitter that also apply to management.

1. A safe environment should be maintained to avoid injuries, name-calling, and bad feelings.
2. Training is really necessary to move from a novice to a comfortable skill level on anything new to people.
3. Good time management skills and prioritization insures important things get done before time runs out.
4. It is best to match tasks and jobs to the experience and skills of each person in the group.
5. Having people work as a team often gets more done with better results.
6. You can save time if you have a more skilled person partner with a new (or younger) person to learn something new or difficult to understand.
7. A little healthy competition does not hurt, as long as it is done for fun.
8. Be prepared for quick problem-solving, as there may not be time to dilly-dally.
9. Always be prepared with a back-up plan or alternate idea, just in case things do not go as planned.
10. Explain expectations upfront and be willing to negotiate when necessary.

If you want another perspective on grown-up business applications for babysitting, check out 4 Ways Babysitting Prepared You to Kick Ass at Your Job Today.

Meeting Time and Cost Infographics and Statistics

I was recently asked to provide some references for all the meeting statistics flying around in the business world.  Most are very old but are still being quoted today.  In checking the web, I not only found the same old statistics, I found them graphically displayed in infographics.  So I share some of them below.  Just so you know, I have a RARA meeting infographic based on my meeting management approach on what is needed have better meetings rather than quote stats.  The book R.A!R.A! A Meeting Wizard’s Approach (available on Amazon #ad) has a flow chart of how to use the approach to have more effective and efficient meetings, as well as forms to aid in the process.

Check out this ”You Waste a Lot of Time at Work” infographic from IT company Atlassian on how business people waste time.  The #2 reason is meetings.  As graphics go, I find the average meeting attendee images are very clever.  Here are their sources for the meetings potion of their infographic: Meetings in America and The State of Meetings Today.

In “America Meets Alot” post, Attentiv provides some different statistics than you typically see in a few charts they provide.   Their six meeting types are more specific, yet they fall under the same five general meeting types I present.

I also found a clever “Meetings in the Digital Age” infographic” from Lucid Meetings with some updates from the original 1970’s and 1990’s sources used in most infographics I saw.  So you may want to scroll down and check out the words and numbers in the blog post following the graphic.  Here are their extrapolations as updated findings. 

   1, Every day in the US, there are somewhere between 36 - 56 million meetings, not 11 millio

   2. There is NO consensus on what percentage of meetings are effective. 

   3. The cost of ineffective meetings is higher than $37 billion!

BTW: I like Lucid Meetings and find them trustworthy.  Why? Because they retweet my meeting articles and blog posts quite often! If you want to help improve their stats, take the five minute survey at the bottom of their post.

If you just want some numbers for a PowerPoint presentation, check out the stats listed in in 2WorkSMART post “The Impact of Bad Meetings on Your Business.”

You may also want to review “The Ugly Truth About Meetings” infographic from INC. magazine’s blog. The infographic mentions many common meeting problems and touts video conferencing as a solution to lack of attendee focus.  Obviously they have not seen how some people work at their desk while listening in on a meeting just so they can be marked as attending, even though they did not actively participate.  You can prevent most of the meeting problems this infographic mentions with tips from my book above or having someone who understands meeting management and facilitation do a simple training session.

Not yet convinced that bad meetings are costing your business unnecessary dollars?  Read the Money Watch article ”How much do useless meetings cost?”

Google Notes Five Building Blocks as Keys to Team Effectiveness

An on-line article from World Economic Forum (released in December 2015), Google shares what they believe to be the five keys to effective teams within their organization. I agree with them from my experience teaching team-building and facilitating teams through various stages of development.  So I thought I would do a comparison of their keys to skills taught in typical team-building training, programs, and books. 

1. Psychological Safety equates to team members building trust for each other so they are not afraid to voice ideas or opinions in meetings, as well as take risks in improving their work processes. See RARA A Meeting Wizard’s Approach to improve team meetings and start getting action items done. 

2. Dependability means all team members are accountable to one another for assigned action items or projects, and getting necessary work done. See TAPP Steps in Time Management if team members do not know how to plan their time.    

3. Structure and Clarity happens when team members understand their roles, help develop plans, and set goals.  This is especially important for team start-up and when new members are introduced to the team.  See Team Building Primer for how to do this.

4. Meaning/Motivation in a team’s work leads to higher commitment because their work is important to each member and they all are able to participate in developing their goals, assigning tasks, making training plans, and designing (or redesigning) their processes for maximum efficiency and effectiveness.

5. Impact/Results come when the team reaches milestones and goals along their development path and truly understand that their work matters to the organization.  Then the team members will be able to take greater risks, be more flexible on project assignments, and be comfortable leading change efforts.  See OPIE Project Planning and Implementation for Teams for work teams occasionally working on small projects which do not require all aspects of full project management.

List of Team-building and Training

I put this together as a reference for my friends and associates from ATD.

Quick List of Team-Building posts by Shirley Fine Lee:

• Who and what has your team meetings hung up?
• Start Virtual Team Meetings with a Little Business Improv
• Team Rebuilding and Recognition
• Teambuilding events must be worth the business investment
• What is the right size for a team?
• Evaluating meeting tools that are free on the internet
• Assessing the Effectiveness of a Virtual Team Leader
• Buying Business Books as Recognition Gifts
• Are empowerment and teams buzzwords now?
• Starting a Virtual Team with the Right Membership
• OPIE Planning Process and the Project Team
• Facilitation Tips for Process Mapping in Team Meetings
• Responsibilities of Self-directed Teams from the Team Coach

Fast Link to Shirley Fine Lee's Team-Building articles.

Quick List of Informative Training posts by Shirley and her fellow bloggers:

• The Five Stages of Learning as a Skills Matrix
• Emoticons as Training Evaluations
• Training on a Tight Budget
• Ten Ideas to Learn Your Way to Success
• Can reading club complement training initiatives
• The Marvelous Method of the Lunch and Learn!
• The Managers Buffet - What will you pick?
• Leadership Training – Report Indicates Top Four Needs
• Partnering for training success
• Recognition Badges and Training Gamification
• Tips for Supporting Training Initiatives
• 14 Success Factors for Leadership Development and Training
• Perfect Phrases to Encourage Participation or Creativity
• Create Your Training Needs Analysis
• Ideas from Two Training and Meeting Game Books

Fast Link to Shirley Fine Lee's Training articles.

Books for Facilitators, Instructional Designers, or Trainers (with Amazon #ad links fro reference):

- Kiss, Bow, or Shake Hands: How to Do Business in Sixty Countries by Morrison, Conaway, and Borden 
- Measuring Leadership Development: Quantify Your Program's Impact and ROI on Organizational Performance by Phillips, Phillips, and Ray

Given Away:
- Program Development and Evaluation Resource Book for Trainers by Rosemary S. Caffarella 
- The Complete Guide to Supervisory Training and Development by Lester R Bittel
- The Facilitator's Fieldbook by Jamieson and Justice
- The Accelerated Learning Handbook: A Creative Guide to Designing and Delivering Faster, More Effective Training Programs by Dave Meier 
- Perfect Phrases for Ice Breakers by Runion and Windingland 
- Diversity: The ASTD Trainer's Sourcebook by Tina Rasmussen