After a few bumps in the road (we are really sorry – the location is Nexient - 30 Eglinton Ave. West – the tall glass building in the plaza with the Emerald Chinese Restaurant – 2nd floor!!!!) the launch of the IT PRO Toronto group was a success. I suggest parking in the back, behind Tim Horton's and enter the building from the double glass doors. Mitch Garvis, esteemed President of IT PRO Toronto provided an entertaining overview of Virtualization. Some really great goodies (AKA SWAG) was had by some very lucky folks…and our room sponsor, Nexient Learning offered up some discounts to professional development courses they have coming out for the new family or server products! As our inaugural meeting we were very pleased with the participation from the local IT Pro community. We had lots of excellent discussion during the presentation and it continued afterward with a coffee talk at the Second Cup across the road. I unfortunately couldn't stay for the chat, but hope to be able to next time! And speaking of next time…our next meeting is April 15 with a wonderful discussion on Unified Communications. Please register online for the event…we look forward to seeing you then!
Thursday, March 20, 2008
Launch of IT PRO TORONTO A “Virtual” Success
Tuesday, March 4, 2008
Effective Training is like an Effective Meeting
We've all read articles or listened to experts discuss how to have effective meetings…and as trainers, many of us have been inundated with materials on facilitating effective training sessions. There are many parallels that can be drawn between tips for effective meeting management and tips for effective training delivery. I came across an About.com 3-part article titled Effective Meetings Produce Results: Tips for Meeting Management and it made me aware that these same tips and guidelines apply to the delivery of effective training – no matter what the content. I have pulled the main tips from the first part of the article and discuss how they apply to training. TIPS: Plan For some trainers, their job is information centric, meaning they lecture and provide information and then test the knowledge of the material presented. Other trainers prefer courses that are learner centric – everything they do in the session is designed to allow the learner to get the most practical application of the lessons or skills being delivered – which they may not get by reading, digesting and regurgitating loads of material. Whether learner centric or information centric sessions are your speciality it is important to PLAN. Planning provides the trainer with a guide for topics, material, examples and exercises that may be included in the session to help assist the learners in understanding concepts. Notice I said "Guide"? Just like a good meeting, a guide (agenda) allows you to stay on track but still allow a bit of flexibility to include attendee's comments, concerns, discussion and ideas outside of the major focus (utilizing our classroom management tools to keep as much control as possible). Need Most trainers understand that if there is no need, there is no training session. Effective meetings are held only when there is a requirement to do so…if there is no new information to share with a group, why take time out of each person's day to meet? Prior to any meetings there should be a needs assessment done – can the information be shared via memo or email or is there really a need to meet? Trainers know that a needs analysis is a crucial component to any successful training session. If there is no need for the education, there is no need for a training session. Defining the need also helps determine the direction the session will take and will thereby directly impact the PLAN. Appropriate Participation There is nothing worse than attending a meeting that has nothing to do with you, your job, your department, your clients etc. I have gotten into the habit of clarifying with meeting callers to determine if, in fact I am truly required at the meeting, what is the impact if I am not at the meeting, is my input required etc. I would not, for instance, expect to be called into a sales manager's meeting unless there is a need for training advice or discussion on sales training. If I am expected to participate in a meeting but have only one or two things to discuss, I try to request that any portion of the meeting pertaining to me, training or my department, be scheduled at the beginning of the agenda so that I can get on with other things. How do trainers ensure appropriate participation? By reviewing the Needs Analysis and performing Skills Assessments. Do we want an Excel expert to participate in a basic Excel class unless we want them to be bored and leave the session telling everyone else what a waste of time it was? By ensuring the proper team members participate in appropriate sessions, we are better able to guide the success of our learners. Yes, a skills assessment takes time, your time as the trainer and the valuable time of the staff members, but failure to ensure the correct audience is in the correct session will result in a much lower ROTI (return on training investment) and we don't want that now do we? Distribute and Review It's a great idea for meeting facilitators to send out the agenda in advance of the meeting. It shows the following: Notice those are the first three items on our list? Once a needs assessment is completed, a course outline (agenda) will be created to assist with the planning phase of the training session. With this course outline distributed in advance, we can ensure that expectations for the session are clearly defined and provide us with a measure for the success of our training session. This is also a great opportunity to get the participants actively involved in learning prior to the session. If you assign case studies that must be read prior to the session, distributing the study with the course outline helps the trainer be more effective because there is now only a need to quickly review the case study prior to inviting discussion. The same applies in a meeting. I prefer to have all the information to read prior to the meeting so that I can formulate my questions and facilitate a more efficient meeting by addressing those questions/concerns if I have all the information before. This also results in fewer meetings. Why you ask? Well – let's say we have a meeting to discuss something new. At the meeting we are given 25 pages of documentation on a new tool. It wouldn't be a good use of the meeting time to read through the materials and try to come up with questions so we'd end up having another meeting to discuss our questions/concerns/comments after we have had a chance to review. Doesn't it make sense to provide the information first and have only ONE meeting to discuss the content? Sure it does…unless of course you like attending meetings. Meeting Minutes as take-a-ways or course handouts like manuals, cheat sheets, tips and tricks are excellent reminders of what was covered in the training session and are fantastic tools for post session/meeting refreshers. I have, for quite some time, thought of my training sessions as meetings to ensure I run my training as efficiently as possible while still keeping the end goal of student success in mind. I plan for each and every training session no matter how many times I have instructed that session. I ensure there is a need and assess the people who will be attending. Finally, I follow up with post lesson materials, reviews and testing so that I am better able to assess the success of the training session. It is my belief that my success as a trainer is attributed to using the above skills to effectively manage my "meetings".
Monday, March 3, 2008
3 Tips to Make E-Learning ‘Stick’
As adults, trying to learn something new whether it is upgrading our skills for our current job, or building our skills to take a step on to something new, we need to make what we learn stick. I envy my daughter – she really is a sponge. I wish I had appreciated the ability I had to learn new concepts when I was young. Instead, as I get older and spend many hours of my own personal time upgrading skills, learning something new and developing materials for people just like me, I have found three tips that help me. You know this already – we've seen it as part of the "green" initiatives in our communities. How can this help? 1. Reduce As adults, we are easily distracted by things going on around us. How many times have I been reading a book and found I've read the same paragraph 5 times because the phone rings, the dog wants out, dinner needs to be made, a child wants a snack or can't find something they had ten minutes before. If I reduce the amount of distractions around me, I'm more able to immerse myself in the task. I turn off the television, or find a quiet corner of the house in which to work, I have a little sticky note that says DO NOT DISTURB or MOM IS STUDYING and place it on the closed door. I also give my family a little notice when I need quiet time…"I need 25 minutes to do what needs to be done. Please look after the dog, and answer the phone on the first ring. Thanks." I will also detail what I will be doing more so I have a measure when I am finished, that way, when I leave my quiet space and get back to real-life, I can tell my family my accomplishments. "I got those 30 pages read. Thanks for letting me have that time." 2. Reuse You probably wonder where the "reuse" comes into play. I have old papers that I don't need anymore. I've folded them in half and cut the papers to create little notepads. I then use these little notepads to make my study notes. I also use sticky notes and place sticky notes on each page with statements that sum up the main idea or thoughts on a page or list out the main points I need to remember. I REUSE these papers to help me pull all the information together – if I have two or three days between study opportunities, I will REUSE the sticky notes and papers to refresh my memory on what I tackled in the previous two or three sessions. This way, I am setting a long term reminder in my little noggin by re-reading the items on the sticky notes and committing to memory some of the terms and concepts. 3. Recycle In my experience, if I am able to take what I've learned and translate it so that I am able to tell someone else what I learned and they UNDERSTAND – I have successfully recycled my information for someone else's use. It can be anything from an email to a friend or colleague, a blog entry, a short story, a telephone conversation – anything that allows you to retell in your own words that which you have just learned. My daughter and I have quite grownup discussions about technology, the future of technology and careers. Much of that has to do with me translating what I'm learning and attempting to recycle that information. It can be as simple as "hey, did you know that when an adult learns something new, they have to share the information with their kids?" That leaves the door open for my girl to look at me with that my mom is so weird but I'll listen anyway because somewhere in that lame attempt to talk to me she is likely going to say something that will make me laugh look and inevitably I do. As an instructor to adults, I continue to recommend that every night (or whenever possible) find a quiet place (or a noisy one if that is what works for you) to reduce the amount of unacceptable distractions, review your notes from the previous chapters and begin to create reusable notes for the next section of content. The next day, or the next class session, I would ask the adult learners to share what they are learning – in their own words. Being able to collect your thoughts and ideas, work with a way of repeating the information and being able to translate and share the information with someone else are keys to the success of the 2008 adult learner. Give it a try.
When is Writing Hardest For ME?
I've mentioned before how much I love to write. Writing is a wonderful release for me, an escape from the everyday, ordinary plain old life I lead. It gives me the freedom to express what my mind is thinking without too much fear of backlash. I sometimes use my writing as a sounding board, preparing my words for a tough situation or helping me develop ideas for a presentation or talk. Writing let's me be funny or serious, silly or factual, depending on the topic. I find it pretty easy to write blog entries. If I could just get around the time constraints, I'm sure I would have many, MANY more entries to share, but there are only 24 hours in a day, and I like to find some time to be with my family, eat, sleep, play and yes, even work. I don't have a problem writing about something: I do have a slight issue today. Of course I'm writing and I'm writing about something interesting to me…but it isn't what I'm supposed to be writing. My boss popped by and asked me to write something for the next issue of our corporate newsletter. I was so excited – Hoooray! I get to write something for work, I get to write something meaningful that at least 2000 other people will read, and if I'm lucky be excited about, and I get paid for doing it… Trouble is I can't seem to concentrate on what I'm supposed to be writing about. The topic is something near and dear to my heart – education in the workplace. And I get to write about the great technologies we are working with and what e-Learning is as well as how it will affect the workforce and what great topics we'll offer as training modules. For me, it seems, writing is the hardest when I'm given a topic and asked to write about it rather than have a topic in my noggin begging to be let lose… I do believe that all this writing today has given me a brainwave for the article so I can meet my Wednesday deadline. Solution??? Pretend it's a blog entry.
