Leveraging LinkedIn

As I sit here this morning preparing to start a new position in my Learning and Development career, I find myself answering a ton of Emails from well-wishing networking contacts — all of whom have had some sort of hand in helping me to quickly transition from a downsizing into a new, improved gig at the company that topped my list of places I’d like to work. After writing a few thank-you letters, I started thinking… my transition was fast, but it was likely the same ultimate story as many job seekers. Or, at least, what many job seekers know they have to do.

The problem is, many of those job seekers ignore the advice that’s all over the place for them to leverage — instead choosing to do it thier own way — and finding themselves frustrated by the difficult nature of the search.

The advice that’s out there for the taking is hit-and-miss. But one piece of advice has always been solid — your best bet is to network your tail off. And networking doesn’t mean joining LinkedIn today and expecting the world to beat a path to your door with offers galore. It means that you need to start the process long before you will ever want to rely on your network to help you transition.

I found a great post over on the LinkedIn blog today about just that. It’s geared towards recent graduates, but the story is the same for everybody. Build your network. Not just a list of names who can help you, by the way, but people who you can relate with and you never know what will come of it. This network that you build has the potential to be your greatest asset in your career, but only if you’re willing to give more than you get.

Give value. Keep in touch. Send information to contacts if it applies to them.

In other words, treat your LinkedIn network just like you treat your friends. Treat them like you care… because if you don’t care, neither will they!

Networking 2009 isn’t much different than Networking 1989… it’s just making and maintaining connections with people.

Connections is the key word here. Think about those people who call you ‘friend,’ yet only talk to you when they need something. Doing that to people on LinkedIn is the same… give VALUE.

Give value to your network — just like you do to your friends — expecting nothing in return. Every time.

You’ll be stunned to see how much value comes back to you.

Change – Are You Ready For It?

A pretty standard part of life in the world of learning and development has always, at least for me, seemed to included the dreaded term “downsizing,” “rightsizing,” or plain old “layoff.” It seems that everywhere I’ve ever worked, one of those crazy terms somehow ends up attached to the positions that I hold. For a long time, I wondered if it was me. But after several years of angst about myself, I was able to get past the “why me?” stages and progress to the “It’s my career and I need to define it!” stage.

Layoffs happen, especially in these economic times that we live in today. Never before has it been so important to take control of your career rather than letting your career control you. A few weeks ago, the words came again: “due to business conditions, we regret to inform you…” But this time, it was different. This time, I was ready!

We in the L+D world serve a fantastic purpose to our customers. But in these tumultuous, our value can very easily become a liability. And it’s because of that reality that we all of to be prepared for those words.

I highly recommend that you take a peek at a chapter from the American Society for Training and Development that tackles the issue of being ready for change head-on. I don’t know that it has all the answers that you may seek, especially if you’re just caught up in a downsizing. But the system that it discusses about taking charge of your career has never been so relevant. Right at the beginning of the chapter, the author discusses the importance of stepping back if you’re about to make a transition and taking stock.

1. Wind Down – Take the time to wrap up loose ends and say your goodbye’s. Make sure you leave on good terms. Speaking personally, as this has happened to me multiple times along my career path, I can’t stress this enough! When this latest event happened, I made sure to wrap up loose ends with my former employer, just as I have always done. At the end of the day, it’s a strategy that ultimately helped me land my newest assignment, as it came about through a former co-worker at another company. In other words, instead of cursing the situation, be a professional and do what’s right to help you close the book.

2. Call Time Out – Take stock of you. It’s so tempting to throw your hat into a dozen different rings, just hoping to “get a job.” Again, it’s your CAREER – it’s not just a job. Lots of people do jobs. But I am a L+D professional… it’s a CAREER, not a job. Decide what you want to do, define it, and get yourself in the position to go get it!

3. Take Off – Once you’ve decided your next move – MAKE IT! So many people are afraid to just take the step and show a potential employer that they are great at what they do. Don’t try to be a jack of all trades… be a MASTER of one or two, and show the world that you are THE master of what you do.

The Bald Truth is pretty clear… it’s YOUR career. Take control of it NOW.

And seriously… take a look at the ASTD chapter. It’s not a “quick read,” but it’s well worth the time.

More Bang For Your Training Buck

Came across a good article earlier today at ATW Training Trends giving a list of ten things that companies should consider for sqeezing the most out of every dollar in training budget. They’re all good ideas, though a few, such as #10 – Build a library full of books, may be seen as cost-prohibitive in these times, a few others are spot-on and it continues to baffle me why more companies aren’t thinking about different ways to improve the skills of their employees.

Consider #6: Use Podcasts and YouTube to spread your message. It’s free and easy.
I couldn’t agree more, but I believe that it’s important to ensure that there is sufficient quality in the delivered message, and quality isn’t exactly free. Video training surely requires some level of scripting, some pratice, and that all equates to bottom-line dollars. These sorts of messages, though, can be done relatively inexpensively, but nothing is free.

The Bald Trainer’s Short List

1. Screencasting
2. Job Aids
3. Recorded Webinars

Something that I didn’t notice on this list was the concept of recording screencasting, especially when it comes to training of technology. While it’s also not free, screencasting can be done inexpensively using freeware products such as UTipU, which allows for a solid user experience with little initial training and gets the job done.

Another idea that I’m also pretty sold on is the development of well-written job aids, which in many cases can all but eliminate the need for any formal training. They’re also not free, but can be done simply and the process can be duplicated for several different trainings.

In regards to webinars, they can also be done for a little bit of nothing, and again… using the right provider, they can be replicated and placed into a queue for any customer to access later.

The Bald Truth here is this – there are numerous ways to have a significantly postitive impact on any training budget, it just takes some different thinking sometimes. In these lean times, chanigng the way of thinking is the most positive way that companies can save dollars.

“Coaching” in the Learning+Development World

I came across a very interesting article this morning on TrainingZone.co.uk regarding the role of ‘coaching’ in an organization.  The whole of the article is strong, but one paragraph jumped out at me like a scary monster…

“But coaching alone is not always able to miraculously drive change, improve performance, increase happiness, make money and lift the level of engagement in an organisation. Coaching is a powerful tactic that is best used to support and achieve a specific business objective.”

Talk about an “a-ha!” moment!

Often in this funny world of learning and development, it’s easy to fall into that pattern of thought pattern of “We are the experts. We know best,” after which we gleefully produce some boring training content, release it to the masses, then wonder why our learners fail.

• “They just don’t get it.”
• “They’re not very smart.”
• “What a group of boneheads!”

Honestly, the longer I live in this L+D world, the more I realize that when a client isn’t “getting it,” it’s typically one of about three reasons:

1. They really don’t care (uncommon)
2. They really don’t understand the subject matter (which usually means I need to look at another delivery method)
3. I’m not giving it my all, so I look for every reason other than myself (most likely reason)

The reality about this whole idea of learning+development… of teaching… of training… or whatever else you want to call it, is rather simplistic. We trainers need to stay true to our mission — which is to impart knowledge and help our clients to get better at whatever it is that we feel the need to teach.

I feel that I really came into my own as a L+D professional when I became a youth soccer coach. No… I’m being completely serious!

Guiding young people on the soccer field has very little to do with soccer. Just like coaching softball or basketball, the top coaches may have very little knowledge of the nuances of the sport. Rather, what a good coach is able to do with his students is the same that is in a corporate training room… or even sitting beside a client doing some one-on-one coaching on-site. You have to work with the client to achieve a desired objective! In soccer, that objective varies match-by-match, just like in business.

The bald truth of this is quite simple… to be really effective with my clients in their learning+development, I need to be able to coach them towards their ultimate objective. That is my objective! If I fail on my side, how can I ever expect to help the client to succeed?

e-Learning – It’s one of MANY options, not the ONLY option!

Interesting post over on MinuteBio regarding some of the perceived advantages and disadvantages of e-Learning. Some really good stuff on these lists, and I think that the term ‘perceived’ is exactly correct. The article really got me thinking this morning. As with any mode of learning — be it classroom-based or a conventional Computer-based Training — at the end of the day, the value of any mode of training falls right at the feet of the learner. And as a company, isn’t it in our best interest to give them options?

One thing that I’ve learned in my years in the Learning and Development world is this… if a person feels that they are gaining knowledge from a style of learning, that’s the style that they’ll inevitably gravitate to. It’s true that e-Learning has significant upsides, just like classroom training does, but at the end of all of this, who is this about? The trainer? The learner? Both? Neither?

Well, It’s my true belief that e-Learning is but one of many methods of training that a company MUST provide to their learners, especially in the corporate training world. If it’s practical, why not offer your learners a choice?

“OK, let’s set up your training plan. Oh, I see… you want classroom training. Great! Here’s how much we charge for that. Oh… you don’t want to pay that? Well, we offer an on-demand e-Learning program that should be right up your alley. Ah… I see… you don’t feel that e-Learning will work for your team. Well, how about this? Our senior trainer does run bi-monthly webinars that your team can attend and get you up and running, and then for all training plans we offer on-demand learning aids.”

It seems a relatively simple concept once the process is in place internally… and the winner every time should be the customer.

Which is a good thing, isn’t it? I mean, they do pay the bills, don’t they?

Social Learning and the Training World

Vacations are a wonderful thing. Over the holidays, I was fortunate to have roughly three weeks away from the office. For the first time in my working life, I actually put all work aside and decided to renew myself. A lot of time was spent reading, and even more time was spent honing my craft – training.

Upon returning to work, I immediately set a path to start making changes at my office. Change one was to begin an experiment with Twitter, an experiment that is now up and running and getting put to the test.

But earlier this week, I really got the experiment train chugging along at full speed. The idea: implenting deeper social networking concepts into the core of a client training process. These ideas, which are being adopted all over the world, are nothing new. But what they are is something exciting. We have now devloped some intial screencasts to point clients to, rather than asking them to sift through a standard computer based training model that is less than successful at increasing the understanding of the average person.

Here’s what we’ve accomplished in our training department this week. You’ll need a login and password to view this stuff… just drop me an Email at shane@shanemurphy.com and I’ll give you access.

• Social Networking site set up on Ning
• Initial screencast developed
• Initial video training snippets shot (will be posted on Ning soon)
• Job Aids finalized and released to the client population

Like with the Twitter experiment, I’ll be updating BaldTrainer.com on a regular basis with information about how the entire world of social learning is proceeding in my world, as well as the rest of the training world in general. The big challenge of the Ning site that has been set up will be taking it from a static location to a true social community. As this blog develops, I see this becoming my record of progress in social learning, and my hope is that our efforts here will help others to shift from old training methods to the new world of social learning.

Twitter+Field Training – Update 2

The first phase of my Twitter+Field Training test is complete, and it was a solid success. In the last few days, I have presented my findings to senior staff and gotten the blessing to expand the use of Twitter within the Field Training and Implementation teams. We also intend to draw up expectations for a limited test with the inbound customer support team.

If anyone has experience in using Twitter to support a field team, please comment below.

More updates to follow as the experiment grows…

Twitter+Field Training – Update

First off, my apologies. I’ve been away for  a week… it’s nice when the personal life is going in full gear, but things like BaldTrainer get neglected. My stepson left for Coast Guard boot camp earlier today The past several days have been spent with him, helping him to prepare for a serious life change. I’m gonna miss him, but as a Navy veteran, I couldn’t be prouder.

But back to business now.

Last week, along with one of my co-workers, we gave Twitter a full evaluation for the purpose of communication between a Field Training team and an Implementation manager. A few lessons learned (and some thoughts to build upon):

• Real-time updates from the field trainer (in Detroit) and the Implementation manager (in Cleveland) were effective. The Implementation manager was kept updated throughout the trip, which consisted of field trainings at 13 client sites.
• While it is true that the same sort of information could be exchanged using BlackBerry Messenger, or even simple Email, this communication method yielded some interesting ideas, most notably the thought of having individual Twitter accounts for each trainer. These accounts could be followed by the Customer Care team, who would monitor the trainers for “assistance needed” tweets while performing their normal duties. This could get help to the trainers via Twitter while Customer Care handled other duties.
• The Field Trainer was able to shoot quick questions back to the Implementation manager and get fast responses with the client honestly being none the wiser. This benefited the trainer significantly and allowed the training to be customized on the fly.
• A method of sending “tweet sessions” directly from Twitter to a CRM system would be outstanding. That’s something that will require some investigation, so if anyone has suggestions or experiences with it, I’d love to hear it!
• I continue to get more and more reliant on Jott for keeping things moving on the road. While I used TwitterBerry for most of my updating, I did do quick post-session updates via Jott after concluding each session. Now, I’m giving the Jott to Voice Mail feature a try for a month as well. What a great technology!

THE BALD TRUTH:  Twitter is pretty interesting, at least from a Field Training perspective. More testing is required to find some best practices, but last week was a strong start. I’m open to seeing other ideas in the comments.

Twitter+Field Training – The Test

So far, so good with Twitter as a tool for improving Field Training. One of the biggest issues that I’ve experienced throughout my career is the “How” of making sure that the “stay-behind” folks are able to keep legitimate tabs on how a field training has gone. Ideally, the “stay-behinds” should be able to not only get a synopsis of what happened and what needs to still happen, but should have a view of how it happened.

This week, I’m testing with an implementation manager the real-time nature of Twitter and how it can benefit us. I’ll update That Bald Trainer throughout the week with the progress of this.

There Is No Best Way…

A lot of my focus over the past few years has been on “customized” training… taking a scripted training (for lack of a better term) and customizing it (often on the fly) for a learner or a group of learners. My success rate with that is quite unpredictable. I have some sessions that go better than I could have ever anticipated… and I have some sessions that I wonder how we got past the icebreaker!

Customization of training is very fickle. In the typical corporate environment, it’s not something that’s really considered in my experience. In the world of client-training, however, it seems to have significantly more promise. I know when I walk into any client site that I have objectives to achieve. My customization of the program comes by talking with the learner for a while before we flip the switch. This helps me to know exactly how to train the material and related it to the learner’s notions and expectations.

Some reading over the holiday break brought me to an impressive resource that covers some of these ideals, but covers them within an eLearning framework. Tony Karrar blogs on eLearning Technology about a ton of absolutely impressive stuff, and I picked up this nugget within his Tool Set 2009 posting.

“A caveat that I make in every presentation on this topic is that studies of personal information management repeatedly show that tool sets and methods for personal work and learning are personal. The same tool and method can be highly effective for one person and not effective for others. It depends heavily on the person, the job, the needs, etc. Thus, whenever I say you “should” be using this tool, I really mean you should try this tool out and consider adopting it.”

This comment speaks right to my process of interviewing the learner and tailoring to their needs. I mean, honestly… I don’t expect anybody to do things exactly like I do, anymore than I would expect to do things exactly like somebody else does. We’re living in a rapidly evolving world, us training geeks. The sheer volume of tools that are available to trainers and learners is mind-boggling. So the question becomes “Is my way the best way?”

I like to answer that question with a very simple statement… “There is no best way, there is only a way.”

THE BALD TRUTH:  My goal as a trainer when I’m on a client site is clear… communicate knowledge and help steer the learners to finding the best way to use the knowledge to improve themselves. That should be the goal of any trainer, shouldn’t it?