I work for a small company just outside of Seattle with around 60 employees. Many of the employees live in Western Washington, but others span the country in California, Michigan, Texas, Minnesota and New York. Because our job requires us to travel, we can live away from the office but that also prevents us from being together on a regular schedule. The company provides learning solutions for companies in the utility industry, so we know very well how to design, develop and deliver learner based training, lending to our strong internal training and culture toward learning. “Employee development often has its roots in the company’s mission, goals and values and is related to important business outcomes such as employee retention and the creation of an agile and talented management team and work force.” (Noe, p. 346) I believe the company I work for approaches employee development in those ways.

“Four approaches are used to develop employees: formal education, assessment, job experience, and interpersonal relationships.” (Noe, p. 349) The company I work for uses parts of all these approaches to develop employees.

In regard to formal education, the company does both internal training as well as encourage professional develop outside of the company, and I have taken advantage of both. Twice a year, all the employees get together for internal training. Our peers present specialized information on a variety of topics, as well as open discussions and company planning. It is actually something I look forward to twice a year! I enjoy spending time with people I have worked on projects with before, hearing about other projects, and building connections through shared experiences. All of this is designed around our 6 company core values. “Companies rely on in-house programs because these programs can be tied directly to business needs, can be easily evaluated using company metrics and can involve senior-level management.” (Noe, p. 350) Beyond my internal training, I am also encouraged to seek training and learning opportunities outside of work. For example, my company has paid for me to attend several seminars, and are offering me tuition reimbursement for earning my degree at Walden. “Many companies also provide tuition reimbursement as a benefit to all employees to encourage them to develop.” (Noe, p. 354)

Another employee development strategy, assessment, “involves collecting information and providing feedback to employees about their behavior, communication style, values or skills.” (Noe, p. 355) I feel very valued by my company four times a year when we sit down to do my quarterly performance review. I complete a form prior to the meeting describing what I have been working on, what I have learned, progress on goals, and any professional development. All of this is benchmarked to meet our company core values. “Benchmarks is an instrument designed to measure important factors in being successful.” (Noe, p. 360) Meeting four times a year may seem excessive, but because I’m on the road a lot, and it gives me an opportunity to reflect, realign goals and plan for the future. There’s always plenty of praise, and the opportunity to talk about projects (good or bad). Also, knowing that the work I’m doing is valued motivates me to perform at my best. Because I meet with my Administrative Supervisor so often, we are able to utilize 360-feedback, relating information to me from my peers and superiors about my work. “Benefits of 360-degree feedback include collecting multiple perspectives of managers’ performance, allowing employees to compare their own personal evaluation with the views of others, and formalizing communications between employees and their internal and external customers.” (Noe, p. 363)

Job experience is where I gained all my training about Instructional Design before I started at Walden. “Most employee development occurs through job experiences.” (Noe, p. 364) One benefit of working as a consultant is that I have had the opportunity to work in a variety of roles, doing a variety of tasks, for a variety of customers. “Job rotation helps employees gain an overall appreciation of the company’s goals, increases their understanding of different company functions, develops a network of contracts, and improves their problem-solving and decision-making skills.” (Noe, p. 367) Working for a small company, I am close with my peers who are experts with years of experience to help me. Our culture is built on friendly, collaborative expertise.

Finally, opportunities for interpersonal relationships, such as a mentor can help develop skills and increase knowledge. I never really knew the importance of a mentor until I realized I had one. I say realized because it wasn’t planned. “Most mentoring relationships develop informally as a result of interests or values shared by mentor and protégé.” (Noe, p. 371) Mark is the Director of Performance Improvement at the company where I work. We are very alike, which made us easy friends, but his knowledge, experience and expertise has been the backbone for many of our conversations. He has been a good resource for me on many projects, and keeps me motivated. Marks’ door is always open, building my confidence as an employee.

I suppose that all of these things add up to why everyone loves working for this company, and they have such a high employee retention rate. Furthermore, it speaks to the success of this company, and how, when the economy when through such tough times, this company continued to thrive.

References:
Noe, R. A. (2010). Employee Training and Development (5th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.

• What stakeholders would you want to make sure to get buy-in from?
• What questions would you ask (and to whom would you address them) during the organizational, person, and task analysis phases?
• What documents or records might you ask to see?
• What techniques would you employ (see Table 3.2 on page 108 of the Noe text), and why?

Post a blog entry that describes your plan for performing a needs assessment at your chosen organization. Conclude with your thoughts on the importance of the analysis phase in designing a training program.

The Importance of the Analysis Phase in Designing a Training Program

Every Instructional Designer knows that Analysis is the first phase of the instructional design process.  The entire rest of the process relies on the information gathered during the analysis phase.  As with most projects, aspects of the project can change requiring a return to the analysis phase which means the phases of the instructional design process are not necessarily static.

The analysis phase holds a number of benefits if conducted correctly, yet many companies try to skip the phases believing they already know what learning solution they need.  One of the first mistakes made if analysis is missed is that the designed solution doesn’t solve the performance problem.  Another common mistake is that the wrong information is delivered in the training.  Without doing a task analysis, you can’t be sure if your scope and sequence, objectives or processes are what your audience needs to know.

One problem I have experienced recently is that the “trainees [were] sent to training programs for which they do not have the basic skills, prerequisite skills, or confidence needed to learn.” (Noe, p. 104)  The client opted to do their own analysis and provided us with the results, but it wasn’t until phase 3 of the project that we realized the audience analysis was flawed.  Rather than focusing on the content I needed to deliver for learning a new software program, I had to teach basic computer skills such as clicking and scrolling.  If a thorough analysis had been done, we would have been able to effectively deliver our content to the intended audience, preventing the need for remedial training once the software went live.

Even though the client doesn’t see what they consider to be “progress being made” during this first phase of the design process, it is important to ensure them that this data collection and analysis is what will help design and make decisions throughout the project.  Without it, too many costly things can go wrong.

References:

Noe, R. A. (2010). Employee Training and Development (5th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.

Company Research and Needs Analysis Information

The remainder of my assignment is included in the attached PDF.  Please click on this link Planning for a Needs Assessment to review the company information and my needs analysis strategy.

WordPress is a free blog site. It does not let me do any customization of my own, as well as attach certain files (such as .wav files) without upgrading for $99 or more per year. I’m choosing to be creative and work around these restrictions.

Click the link below to access my speech – both transcripts and audio. I have attached my recorded Elevator Speech in the last page of this PDF. Scroll down and click on the Play ► button to start the audio file. Please contact me if you have trouble accessing the audio. I would be happy to email the file to you.

Elevator Speech – Truth about Training

Thanks for stopping by and happy listening! Remember, the truth is out there.

A little more exciting news, I’m getting married in Hawaii on September 17th! I am beyond excited and can’t wait! More coming soon…

A month into the project, our stakeholders decided to include another technical field to our scope which meant a number of adjustments. First, we had to analyze how this additional audience would impact our current scope. We determined that we needed to meet with SME from the specific field to identify commonalities and differences. Second, we had to determine how this extra work would affect our timeline/deadline. With the addition of SME meetings and content development, the scope creep would add an additional 3 weeks to our timeline. This discovery was directly related to our budget, the next aspect of the project to look at. With the addition of 3 more weeks of work for 3 people (SLS, SID and ID) we brought a new budget proposal to our stakeholders. They had anticipated the budget change, and with some discussion, the new budget was accepted and we set to work on adding the new audience into the scope of our project.

I think the project manager did a good job working with the stakeholders and taking the necessary steps to be flexible, focus on client success and maintain our good relationship with the client. We have a long standing relationship with the client, so this type of change was not out of the norm for us. Rather than fight the client on the change, he took an adaptive approach and I’d like to believe I would do the same thing if I were in that position. If we didn’t have such a good relationship with the client, the situation could have been very different.

I think there are definitely times when scope creep could be detrimental, but this was not that situation. Had the timeline or budget been set in stone, some compromise would be necessary to reset the scope or provide other learning solutions.

My assignment today was to read, hear and see a message and determine how the message changed depending on how the information was delivered.

Message:

“Hi Mark,

I know you have been busy and possibly in that all day meeting today, but I really need an ETA on the missing report.  Because your report contains data I need to finish my report, I might miss my own deadline if I don’t get your report soon.  Please let me know when you think you can get your report sent over to me, or even if you can send the data I need in a separate email.

I really appreciate your help.

Jane”

How did your interpretation of the message change from one modality to the next?

Written Text –

In a business setting, this email has to be interpreted with business in mind, and not taken personally.  Business is about deadlines, progress, profit, success, etc.  I have to assume that the missing data the writer requested was important, otherwise there would be no purpose in writing the request.  The writer is either most comfortable communicating in this modality, or they know the receiver is most receptive to this modality.

From a business perspective, I would reply to the sender as soon as possible to explain my position.

Audio -

A phone call or voice mail is definitely more personal, and expresses more importance in the request.  (I am taking time out of my day to call you and make sure I get that information.)  A phone call also allows for some nonverbal cues that can change the way the message is interpreted.  Tone of voice, stuttering, volume and speed of speech, etc can all affect how the message is received.

I felt like the voice mail message sounded like it was being read so I didn’t notice any nonverbal cues that would change my interpretation of the message.  My actions would be the same as a written message.

Face to face/Video -

This isn’t always an available method of communication as a large percentage of business is done remotely these days.  This may or may not indicate the level of importance of the message.  It may be a matter of personality (I’m a people person), or possibly the opportunity to build rapport, or perhaps this information is important enough to make a request in person.  Nonverbal cues play an even bigger part in the visual interpretation of this message as now the receiver has the vocal cues (see audio) as well as body language (smile, grimace, gaze, posture, arm position, etc.)

Again, I felt like the woman in the video was reading her message and I couldn’t see her body so the nonverbal cues were few and far between.  She did smile at the beginning, so I would assume that it was either a friendly request or she was comfortable making that request of me.

Which form of communication best conveyed the true meaning and intent of the message?

Regardless of how the message is delivered, the receiver is going to interpret its meaning based on their own experiences and perceptions.

As the message sender, especially in a business setting, it is important to incorporate the best practices for the type of professional environment you are working in.

Certainly if you are working in a school, it may be okay to put a J in an email to your principal, but it may not be acceptable to include in your email to the principle contact for a Fortune 500 company.  I will often draft an email, then read it for grammar and spelling, then re-read it in the receiver’s eyes.

In the same respect, when you are on the phone or leave a voice mail for a client, attention to your tone of voice, your verbal fillers (ah, um, eh, and, like, etc) and speed and length of message are important.

Finally, we’ve all been guilty of not paying attention to our body language.  Practice observing your body language while talking on the phone in front of a mirror.  Do you cross your arms when you talk?  What nonverbal message are you sending to the person (people) you are addressing?

                Unfortunately, I don’t think the message delivery was effective in voice mail or in person.  It seemed rehearsed, and in that, it lost some of its meaning.  So, in this case, I think the email was sufficient in delivering the message.  I interpreted it to be more important in the written modality compared to the other delivery methods.  Although, this is not always the case.

What did I learn that will help me communicate more effectively with others in the future?

Unfortunately, I didn’t learn anything I didn’t already know from my studies or experience in this assignment.  But isn’t that the point?  Everyone is going to interpret the message differently.  So tell me cohort, how was my message received?

References:

Portny, S. E., Mantel, S. J., Meredith, J. R., Shafer, S. M., Sutton, M. M., & Kramer, B. E. (2008). Project management: Planning, scheduling, and controlling projects. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Video Program: “Communicating with Stakeholders”
Dr. Stolovitch discusses communication strategies and managing client expectations.

Video Program: “Practitioner Voices: Strategies for Working with Stakeholders”
In this program, Troy Achong discusses strategies for dealing with different stakeholder personalities, and Vince Budrovich illustrates why stakeholders need to be kept involved during the entire lifecycle of the project.

Video Program: “Project Management Concerns: Communication Strategies and Organizational Culture”
Dr. Stolovitch gives Carole Kramer advice on adjusting her communication style to fit her client’s culture.

Multimedia Program: “Work Breakdown Structure”  

Multimedia Program: “The Art of Effective Communication”
Note: Do not review this multimedia program until you have read the instructions for this week’s Blog Assignment. Follow the instructions from the assignment as you view this program.

Some factors that affected my training schedule:

• I spent 12 hours a week travelling by plane.
• I spent 4 nights a week in a hotel with access to a hotel gym (treadmill).
• I was working on an online Masters class that required a minimum of 10 hours of work a week.
• Tulsa, OK is flat and humid.  Seattle, WA is hilly and cold in November.

Based on my training progress on the treadmill, I set a goal of completing the 13.1 mile race in 2 hrs 30 mins.  On Sunday, November 27, 2010 I ran the Seattle Half Marathon in 2 hrs 34 mins.

What contributed to the project’s success or failure?

I believe the project was successful because I spent a great amount of time researching and planning for the race months ahead of time.  I found that every milestone I hit motivated me to reach the next one.  I talked about the race daily and continued to do research on training techniques.  Because my training time in the gym was limited, I tried to maintain good time management.  For example, if I had reading to do for school, I would read on the bike in the gym.  Toward the end, I spent a lot of time visualizing myself running the distance and crossing the finish line.

Which parts of the PM process, if included, would have made the project more successful? Why?

I feel like I utilized several aspects of Project Management in my plan which contributed to my success.  Aspects outside of the PM realm, such as travel and academic activities, complicated my training but good time management (and lack of sleep) helped me to meet my goals.

(I plan to run three more half marathons this year.  My next runs are in April, June and November.  I don’t have any plans to run a full marathon.  26.2 miles?  Are you nuts? J)

http://mmalvin.wordpress.com/2011/01/13/learning-from-a-project-%e2%80%9cpost-mortem%e2%80%9d/

http://mmalvin.wordpress.com/

While seeming worlds away from the job I was doing, looking up at them with their full Outlook calendars and colored spreadsheets, I never really knew what they did, per say.

But, now it’s my turn to broaden my horizons. 

Looking forward to learning more about Project Management!

Some factors that affected my training schedule:

• I spent 12 hours a week travelling by plane.
• I spent 4 nights a week in a hotel with access to a hotel gym (treadmill).
• I was working on an online Masters class that required a minimum of 10 hours of work a week.
• Tulsa, OK is flat and humid.  Seattle, WA is hilly and cold in November.

Based on my training progress on the treadmill, I set a goal of completing the 13.1 mile race in 2 hrs 30 mins.  On Sunday, November 27, 2010 I ran the Seattle Half Marathon in 2 hrs 34 mins.

What contributed to the project’s success or failure?

I believe the project was successful because I spent a great amount of time researching and planning for the race months ahead of time.  I found that every milestone I hit motivated me to reach the next one.  I talked about the race daily and continued to do research on training techniques.  Because my training time in the gym was limited, I tried to maintain good time management.  For example, if I had reading to do for school, I would read on the bike in the gym.  Toward the end, I spent a lot of time visualizing myself running the distance and crossing the finish line.

Which parts of the PM process, if included, would have made the project more successful? Why?

I feel like I utilized several aspects of Project Management in my plan which contributed to my success.  Aspects outside of the PM realm, such as travel and academic activities, complicated my training but good time management (and lack of sleep) helped me to meet my goals.

(I plan to run three more half marathons this year.  My next runs are in April, June and November.  I don’t have any plans to run a full marathon.  26.2 miles?  Are you nuts? )

I know that when I was first faced with taking distance education at my community college, I opted for a classroom.  Later, I chose an online classroom for convenience, but learned that I wasn’t motivated enough to be successful, and the facilitator wasn’t as engaged as I thought.  Over ten years later, I finally considered distance education again, and this time it works for me.

I think the strongest benefit to distance education is that technology is far more accessible than it has been in the past.  Nearly everyone has access to a computer or the internet these days, and nearly anyone in their 30’s is proficient at using them.  The Sloan Consortium has tracked several trends in distance education and has seen exponential growth in the last decade.

“The evidence: Online enrollments have continued to grow at rates far in excess of the total higher education student population, with the most recent data demonstrating no signs of slowing.

• Over 3.9 million students were taking at least one online course during the fall 2007 term; a 12 percent increase over the number reported the previous year.
• The 12.9 percent growth rate for online enrollments far exceeds the 1.2 percent growth of the overall higher education student population.
• Over twenty percent of all U.S. higher education students were taking at least one online course in the fall of 2007.” (Allen & Seaman, 2008)

If these trends continue to increase, I believe distance learning will become another norm, as compared to traditional classroom environments.

The benefits of a distance learning course are variable and numerous.

1. No geographic limitations, waiting in traffic or searching for a parking space.
2. No need to be in a classroom at a specific time.
3. Interactive “classroom” environment.
4. A variety of subjects and programs available from high school to Masters degree and everything in between.
5. Same or comparable cost to attending in person.
6. Can be done anywhere with an internet connection.

 How can I be a proponent for improving societal perceptions of distance learning?

As an instructional designer, it is my job to identify potential distance learning and instructor-led opportunities for my client company.  While not all topics are suited for distance learning, the option can save companies money and time; two very important pieces for companies today.

Having experienced both distance learning and instructor-led courses, I feel like I can give clients (and anyone else who asks), a distinctive look at both options.  Furthermore, having designed and developed course work for both distance learning and instructor-led courses, I feel like I can give a well-rounded and personally developed response to my client’s needs.

In order to improve societal perceptions of distance learning I think I need to be a spokesperson for the truth about distance learning from a personal and professional perspective.

How will I be a positive force for continuous improvement in the field of distance education?

I am, and have been, a positive force for continuous improvement in the field of distance education for the last 3 years I have worked as an instructional designer.  I have suggested and designed distance learning options for many of my clients and will continue to do so if it fits their needs.

References

Allen, I. E., & Seaman, J. (2008). Staying the Course; Online Education in the United States. United States: Sloan Consortium.