Nanette Miner 1/28/14 Nanette Miner 1/28/14

You Can Stop Doing Performance Reviews - Let the Peers do it

In The Crowdsourced Performance Review: How to Use the Power of Social Recognition to Transform Employee Performance, Eric Mosley argues that social recognition, a practice in which many people use social media to consider and recognize an employee's performance on a daily basis, can improve performance more effectively than either the one-on-one performance review or 360-degree feedback.

Nanette Miner 1/27/14 Nanette Miner 1/27/14

Does "Social Media" Limit our Ability to think Independently?

The word "social" has shifted its meaning and has been redefined within the last five years. Today, it often defines social networks, media and marketing. The bubblization of society poses great opportunities to segment people by interests and other characteristics, which in turn, can over-expose people to like-minded peers and distance them from those who think and operate differently. - ManpowerGroup

Nanette Miner 1/22/14 Nanette Miner 1/22/14

Enabling Your Workers to be Trainers

In 2007 Iron Mountain (records management company) was suffering from over-expansion (it had acquired 250 companies in 10+ years) and needed a way to get everyone performing in a similar manner. Training started with the drivers and couriers since they were closest to the customer and, after designing a curriculum, the training was implemented via a peer-trainer-coach approach.

Frontline employees have to apply and pass an interview for the training-coach positions. These positions are in addition to their "regular" jobs (although they do get additional pay). Once chosen, coaches spend a week in training in Atlanta GA learning everything from lift-gate operation to how to speak with customers.

By the end of 2013. Iron Mountain had 400 certified coaches; coaches must recertify each year. Some of the organizational benefits realized since the inception of the peer-trainer-coach approach:

Turnover has fallen 15%
Worker-compensation claims dropped 4.5 million in the first year
Document scanning errors have dropped 85% from their peak
35 coaches have been promoted in their "regular" roles

TD Commentary: There are so many win-win outcomes from this case study. First, using peers as trainers benefits the credibility of the trainer and the training curriculum. Second, using workers who have volunteered to become trainers means you have passionate trainers. And third, this approach is hugely cost effective - in addition to the fact that the trainer-coaches receive a "bonus" for training (not a salary), there is no way any organization would have a "workforce" of 400 trainers.

Kudos to Stacy Henry, Director of Learning, and her team for coming up with this ingenious approach to getting training to the front line in an economical and expedient way.

Source: Workforce.com November 2013

Nanette Miner 1/15/14 Nanette Miner 1/15/14

Need to prioritize training needs? #1 - Critical Thinking!

For organizations trying to prioritize training needs, one of the largest and most pivotal gaps is in the area of critical thinking.

Critical thinking is the raw material that supports the ability to plan, organize, solve problems, make decisions, and innovate, and right now, organizational demand far outweighs employee supply.

Judy Chartrand, Ph.D. in A New Level of Thinking; Training Magazine Nov/ Dec 2013

Nanette Miner 1/14/14 Nanette Miner 1/14/14

Success when Training Multi-Linqual Audiences

The virtual learning environment is a heavily auditory environment. The primary means of communication is through audio which is supported by visuals. The least successful format for transfer and comprehension of information is in an auditory manner.

Therefore, here are some tips that can be utilized in order to have a more successful auditory environment when teaching an online class.

Tip #1: Say Less

It takes people longer to process information auditorily. Therefore you want to give them less words to process. You can either say “I’d like for you to take out your workbooks and turn to page 52 in order for us to review the chart;” or you can say “Turn to page 52 in your workbook.” In the online environment, the latter is preferable.

Tip #2: Be Direct in Your Language

In alignment with the suggested dialogue in the first example, take out all the superfluous words from your vocabulary. Be very purposeful in your word choice and very direct in the way that you speak. For example: Please respond to the poll you see on the right of your screen vs, in a moment you’ll see a poll appear on the screen. It contains 5 choices. Choose the on that you think best answers the question posted.

Tip #3: Repeat Instructions more than Once

When you are about to engage in any kind of interaction, give the instructions at the start of the interaction and again at the end. This alerts the people who are paying attention at the start and those who were lagging and need the instructions in order to go forth and execute the activity. For example: In a minute you’ll go to a breakout room and discuss these three questions with your teammates, I’d like one person to take notes and another person to report back to the larger group when your breakouts are done. Keep in mind you have three questions to answer (repeat of the instructions) in those 15 minutes, so pay attention so that you have sufficient time to discuss each one.

Tip #4: Say the Exact Same Thing the Exact Same Way

Because this is a medium in which people have a hard time quickly grasping what you are communicating, you don’t want to further confuse them by changing the message. Simply say it again. Poor example: (1st time) Please respond to the poll you see on the right side of your screen; (2nd time) On the right side of your screen you’ll see a poll that has three questions, please choose only one. Instead, simply repeat version one as many times as necessary for the learners to grasp what you are asking them to do.4

When you watch what you say, you can assist your learners in being more accurate in the work that they do in the virtual learning environment.

Nanette Miner 12/20/13 Nanette Miner 12/20/13

Residential Education is the "new" College?

Heard Round the Watercooler: Residential Education

Residential Education is used when referring to college and university campuses.

As opposed to MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) which are offered by elite colleges and universities, but the courses are taken online.

Nanette Miner 12/19/13 Nanette Miner 12/19/13

Why We Need to Reform Education in America

You MUST invest 20 minutes in this TedTalk on Education featuring Sir Ken Robinson on Why We Need to Reform Education in America.

Nanette Miner 12/10/13 Nanette Miner 12/10/13

Dilbert-Contractor Does Training

Nanette Miner 11/29/13 Nanette Miner 11/29/13

What we talked about this month

Nanette Miner 11/26/13 Nanette Miner 11/26/13

Most Kids are EXPERT Gamers by Age 21

By the age of 21, kids have spent 10.000 hours playing games. This correlates with Malcolm Gladwell's position in Outliers, which says that 10.000 hours of practice makes one an expert - interesting and thought provoking...

Nanette Miner 11/20/13 Nanette Miner 11/20/13

Why don't we use tuition reimbursement more?!

"After several years of in-depth measurement we found that participation in our company's tuition assistance program resulted in reduced turnover, increased job performance, and enhanced career mobility," says Dorothy Martin, Verizon Learning LINK National Program Manager.