Trainer’s Notebook

Learning is a big part of the exploding online social networking surge. How big is online social networking? Forrester Research has just published findings that show a surge from 57% of online adults participating in 2007 to 75% in 2008. If you’re not in on the surge personally (Myspace, Facebook, YouTube communities, Twitter, Biznik etc.) you might not grasp how to leverage the surge professionally. Does your organization promote peer-to-peer learning through blogging, bulletin boards, creation of short videos, narrated PowerPoint flash presentations? If not, maybe it’s time for some R&D.

Some steps:
1. Set a personal goal of establishing trial “memberships” in 3 to 5 social networking spaces over the next few months.
2. Try searching for friends. Career networking sites like LinkedIn have made this easy, and networks like Facebook make it even easier.
3. Find someone among your friends (or your teenage offspring) who’ll sit by your side and show you some tricks. Personalize your identity with photos. Try uploading a short video. If a few things blow up on the launch pad, chalk it up to necessary research costs.
4. Look how organizations are representing themselves in online communities. Got a favorite Nascar driver? Political candidate? Cellular provider? How do they represent the brand in social networking sites?
5. Brainstorm ten or twenty creative ideas for rolling out your online presence. Then take a look at this article in Advertising Age that talks about brands like Dell and Zappos online social networking presence.

Are we getting outside our comfort zone yet? Well good!

We were thinking the “Make Vids” process has particular pertinence for two segments of the hospitality industry:
1) Certain types of hotels/inns would use this process to engage their staff - and create training and promotional videos for the site. This might be totally revolutionary for this industry.
2) A facility near some type of attraction mounts an effort to market a “We help you make a video of your visit” program. Historic sites, winerys, nature restoration or eco-tourism destinations. The resulting videos would also be helpful in promotion.
Note: This is not about some professional video people writing your script, setting up the shots, lighting, sound, etc. It’s about your team creating the script, storyboards, and operating the gear. We coach a little and edit the final project, complete with titles, music, rolling credits at the end.

One of our clients asked if we could help all 100 attendees at a conference have a fun experience making videos - essentially low production-values educational videos for the client’s new hires. They recognize it’s going to be important to have a video presence if they want to hire the best and brightest. They realize 20-somethings think making videos is creative entertainment.

What a lovely assignment! We had fun doing it. We divided the group into 8 teams of 12. This is actually a pretty common team size for anything but the biggest commercial video productions. It takes a lot of specialists in screenwriting, makeup, lighting, sound and editing to do a project. Few people are well-versed in everything. We found instructors at local tech schools here in Seattle. They were producer-advisors to each of the 8 teams, but team members came up with the concepts, wrote the scripts, and held and operated the gear. Producer’s role was to help the team get past stumbling blocks and dead-ends. In two evenings the teams wrote scripts, created storyboards, and shot their footage. We then edited-out the projects into 3-4 minute projects with titles, music, rolling-credits.

We showed the videos at a wrap-up lunch for the attendees, and they were amazed and amused (howls of laughter and applause) to see what they had created.

The client wants 3 more! Yea!

Our new Drupal website on team-building video creation:
www.vidteams.com

We’re testing the functionality of Microsoft’s LiveMeeting webconferencing product for the American Society for Training & Development Puget Sound Chapter. Microsoft uses LiveMeeting for thousands of tech learning events every year. You can record the conference and people can view and hear the content anytime afterward. I’m told they never show video, and I’ve wondered why?

First, keep in mind most people at Microsoft think their PowerPoint slides are pretty good and if they don’t talk too fast, sprinkle an audience involvement trick in once in awhile and throw in some humor, it’s fine. Microsoft actually has a rating system for speakers for awards and prestige. Woot! Problem is, of course, the whole rest of the world is flowing to video like a tidal wave.

We used a high-end camcorder for our “Beta” meeting last week, and recorded the event. When you go to view the recording what do you actually see? No video. If the speaker is walking around the room, taking questions, and we are using the zoom functionality to show the audience asking questions, etc. it stands to kick up the “people” aspect of the event for the remote viewers, yes? But none of this is played back on the recorded version - just the PowerPoint. And let’s say someone’s PowerPoint is just average - lots of wordy bullet point slides.

Well, I encourage even strangers on a bus to read Edward Tufte’s “The Cognitive Style of PowerPoint - Pitching Out Corrupts Within” so I’ll just drop the reference in one more time. Can we say “Screenshot?” How about:
- cartoons
- photos of people
- diagrams
- Google Maps
- Agendas
- Mind-maps
- Pie Charts
I will just put in this “Bravo” for our June speaker, Stephanie Bell, her PowerPoint was above average:

My friend Jeffrey Shilling told me recently I might want to put some updates on my interests and activities into a blog. I thought this was ironic because I have told myself many times in the past few months that “This would be a great thing to put in my blog.” But didn’t do it. So a brief update:
- Completed a 2-day presentation skills workshop for a large architecture firm, using the Marcus Buckingham “Strengths” as a basis for helping people find a path to get more fun and zest out of pulling together and delivering presentations.
- Completed a work-up on a course on best practices in webconferencing. Delivered two of these through the local ASTD chapter.
- Completed a new curriculum on classroom facilitation. The model for this was Bloom’s Taxonomy - and specifically using open-ended questions that access the higher levels of processing in the brain.
- Completed a “Make Videos” workshop for 100 employees of a large public accounting firm. We formed up ad-hoc teams, the teams created storyboard scripts and shot video, serving as production staff and talent. We edited-out the videos into short 3-4 minute videos and showed them at the wind-up lunch for the conference. I was thrilled by the howls of laughter and spontaneous applause. People came up to me after the lunch and told me this was one of the most creative things they’ve ever done at an educational conference.
- Researched how to use a camcorder as a webcam for webcasting meetings and presentations. This is easy to do with a firewire-enabled camcorder set back in the audience, plus a low-impedence mic and some inexpensive enabler software. We will likely start webcasting the local ASTD chapter meetings in coming months leading up to a major focus on webcasting at the October 2 “Future of Training” conference at the Seattle Central Library.

When people in HR talk about the “Skills Gap” they are generally referring to people who will retire from an organization, taking valuable “skills” or “experience” with them. It is believed that the cohort of workers born from 1946 through 1960, a big “bulge” in the population, will start retiring soon, and there’s a lot of speculation on what that means.

It’s commonly believed that it will cost a lot to replace this loss. Replacing the lost skill or experience requires:
1) that the organization knows what knowledge or skill is required for the work
2) that it anticipates the loss of the worker
3) a process for capturing and passing along the knowledge\
4) that a new worker is selected who is suited for the knowledge
Running such processes is becoming a part of the parvenu of the “Training Department” and people are looking for best practices like mad.
In reviewing the presentations I have seen in the past year about wiki’s, podcasts, bulletin boards and threaded chat, it occurred to me that the replacement workerbees might benefit from some basic polish-up in their memory skills and reading skills. Afterall, what part of your organization’s workforce ever took a memory course? What part ever took a speedreading course. And who expects their memory or reading skills to get better just by using them? And is your golf game improving each time you play the game?
If you’re puzzled by the above, it’s worthwhile to take a look at these free pages from MindTools.
I recently checked-out some books from the library on speedreading techniques. Most offer a threefold improvement in speed and comprehension. Like your golf game, improvement takes time invested in doing some simple drills.
This falls in the category Steven Covey would call “Sharpening The Saw” except, as mastery learning skills, they really deserve to be called “Sharpening The Saw Sharpener.” I’m amazed at how much speed improvement comes with just a bit of practice.
Now for those rusty typing skills…

Many trees have been transformed into paper to publish the many, many analyses of the coming “Skills Gap.”

Could they have more productively been processed into Presto-Logs?

Predicting organizational distress is a small industry in itself. Yes, everyone knows the boomers are going to retire. Yes, they have skills, experience, knowledge of value. What we don’t know is whether organizations can become adept at capturing the value through knowledge-management programs, and conveying it to the surviving employee base. Gurus began pointing to Wikis, talent management processes, and a variety of other tools. Who’s paying attention?

Remember the Y2K Crisis?

My friend Robert Cenek forwarded me the recent survey by the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College found that, among 450 employers surveyed, fully 60% expected employees in the post-50 age group to stay 2 years longer than the current median retirement age of 65. Most decision-making on retirement age was in the employees hands. The survey explored what effects the delayed retirements would have on 1) the knowledge base of the organization, 2) promotion ladders, 2) labor costs, etc.
A careful perusal of the survey questions and results, triggers several questions:
1) If more older workers are going to stay in the workforce, is there an effect on the way learning/performance programs are deployed?
2) How does an organization identify key knowledge/skills to capture?
3) What are some examples of knowledge irretriveably lost?
4) How does an organization know if they’re on the right path?

I finally got into Edward R Tufte’s new booklet “The Cognitive Style of PowerPoint: Pitching Out Corrupts Within.”
If you use visual aids and want to reach the visual learners in your audience, it’s well worth reading - it’s only 30 pages.
It would also be valuable for people who do financial presentations, use visuals in the courtroom, pitching to Wall Street, or in the boardroom.
I’d been ignoring Tufte’s rants about PowerPoint in recent years. A lot of bad visual aids are created out of ignorance and laziness. But someone recommended it to me, and I must admit I think that he’s onto something.

First, for the faint-of-heart, I’ll warn you that Tufte shows the actual PowerPoint slides that led to the Space Shuttle Columbia’s disasterous re-entry from orbit in 2003. Was the risk analysis botched, then obscured by faulty PowerPoint slides? You can judge.

Tufte has taken his criticism beyond ignorance and laziness. He says that PowerPoint is as disasterously flawed as the Ford Pinto gas tank. It is built to mis-manage decisions, fluff-up faulty ideas and make them appear palatable, to lie convincingly. He says PowerPoint is a child of the software industry, and implies that it’s design is warped by the need to sell vaporware, persuade customers that bugs and security problems don’t exist, and inflate features and profits.

Putting aside these arguments, he nails the inherent incompatibility of meeting rooms, projection screens, and the human field of vision. If you’re 30 feet away from a 5′ X 5′ screen you can’t see much unless the type is VERY LARGE. That means you can’t put much on the screen if you want people in the back to read it.

Now, having said that, I had a GIANT EPIPHANY this week. I was laughing so hard I actually did cry while reading the 2nd half of Tufte’s book. It is full of zany, awful visuals. It all became clear how valuable a 2 or 3 projector system is for leveraging visual aids and learning. One of Tufte’s contentions is that the linear nature of PowerPoint makes it difficult for the audience to compare, contrast, go back, suggest different perspectives, or ask “What if…?” or “What else…?”
A very wide projection surface not only makes it easier for people in the back, it is ideal for these side-by-side comparisons.
For more info on multiple-projector presentations go to www.trizenter.com.
I have one of these 3 projector systems and love to show it off to people. And NO, projectors don’t cost half what they used to.

Mark Bower offers this challenge to trainers in his blog: ‘What Happened to “Training”?’ Mark looks about as old as me, and dresses in an unfashionable sweater to match his gray hair and rimless glasses, so he’s old enough to know our profession is as prone to fads as any - more than most. He starts provocatively - useful for generating an emotional reponse, eventually sprinkles holy water on the words “performance” and “learning.”

My response to Mark:
High performance is comprised of results-ful behaviors, usually directed not only by the brain’s having learned some information and skills, but also from a mental set that operates above the skills level. There are fads in how you describe these, and academia dances around this by teaching the history of the hypothetical constructs: behaviorism, multiple intelligences, self-image, etc.

A lot of corporate climbers have jumped on the term “learning” and that’s a reflection on the competitive and somewhat faddish nature of life inside Starbucks/Qwest, etc.

This is natural. A lot of business is still trying to play catch-up with other fields where performance measurement is decades ahead. Sports for instance. This is true not only in individual performances like running 10k, but also in team sports where baseball statistics from 1907 are readily available. You don’t hear team managers or track coaches talking about “learning up for a meet” or “learning began three months before the season.” NASA doesn’t talk about “learning-up for a mission.” The highest levels of performance have always required learning basic skills and theory and mission detail, and then rehearsing up for a particular performance, or opponent. The 3 most important factors in winning:
Practice.
Practice.
Practice.
I always thought it odd that people, for instance, think that they will be able to do a webconference effectively without a lot of practice. Things will go wrong during any high-demand situation, and people get flustered and their performance falls off if they don’t have the basics so well-mastered that their performance on the basic level is on auto-pilot, leaving them more mental bandwidth for the tactical decision-making and adaptation.
Practice.
Practice.
Practice.
Plus, rehearsal gives you confidence, whether it is in handling a sports opponent’s new tactic, or handling a balky network connection.
Whether you use “learning” or “training” you need people with high levels of talent and motivation for a particular game/mission/job, who are willing to
Practice.
Practice.
Practice.
Not picking the right people for the job and not getting the required amount of practice is probably where 50% of every performance-improvement budget is wasted, and whether you call it “learning” or “training” is completely immaterial.

I’m at BarcampBank Seattle - a great way to spend a Saturday. About 35 people are spending their Saturday in a 3rd floor open office/conference space in Seattle’s Pioneer Square. While the building is over 120 years old, the ideas are freshly baked as this morning.
Some individuals have brought topics they’re here to discuss. A lot more of us are here to hear interesting ideas. Since this particular FooCamp-style event is about banking, there are a lot of people here to talk about issues like Credit Union customer satisfaction, community-based currencies, new online financial exchange systems.
I’m looking to use this Foo-Camp/Bar-Camp model in the local American Society For Training & Development chapter’s “Future of Training” conference September 25.
In the old-style seminar model you recruited “good” speakers, based on their reputation or their business affiliation, and they came and stood in front of a room and showed their PowerPoint presentation graphics, engaged the audience, demonstrated an online simulation or how to do something. They were funny. They were authoritative. Told great stories. They were comparable to your best professor in college.

In the new model someone may do a presentation or just start doodling words and diagrams on a wall of white board, and asking the audience engaging questions, and then people start kicking in ideas. They may show new software or a website, and engage discussion on it. The topics at this camp range from “The iPhone in economic exchange” or “Community money systems - the neo tribalism.”
One Seattle credit union marcom manager challenged a group by saying that if your customer satisfaction score isn’t a 9 on a scale of 10, you won’t receive referrals from your customers anymore? Know who gets a 9? Harley Davidson.
BARCAMP LEARNING EDGE
People may learn more, because they’re sitting in a particular room on a topic in which they’re interested, asking questions, challenging each other.
The topics may be about tight, narrow questions - because there may be 10 topics going on at once in different corners - compared with the old model where there are maybe 2 to 4 presenters in break-out sessions.
The people who are attracted to such events are highly curious - they’re way out on the front edge of the bell-shaped-curve of learners.
I’m curious about what portion of the general audience of an ASTD chapter will come to an event like this without knowing much about the specific topics or discussions or demonstrations in advance? How can you get people to commit to moderating? How can you get people to post “Topics I’d Like To See Discussed”?
Time for a big wide-open SurveyMonkey query?