2012 Top Ten Professional Resolutions

2012 is no longer just an action movie or a looming prophecy, it is about to become reality. This is the time of year when we ponder changes and eagerly welcome a fresh, new start. Resolutions need not always be of a personal nature. In the spirit of building relationships and making connections, Escoe Bliss has decided to share our top ten goals for 2012.

If you know Escoe Bliss, you know we love grammar! This list of resolutions is derived from some etymological fun surrounding the historical origin of ‘en'. 'En' is of Greek origin, meaning: in, into, inside, inwards. 

 So without further ado, here are:

The Top Ten Professional Resolutions to Ring "En" Your New Year! 

1. Envision: to picture mentally; especially some future event or events "As long as the mind can envision the fact that you can do something, you can do it, as long as you really believe it one hundred percent." - David Hockney, Artist, Designer, Photographer
   Making resolutions is your first step to envisioning success in 2012, but you need to get behind them and make them real. Write your resolutions down. Review your goals on a regular basis in order to keep them fresh and stay motivated. Set realistic expectations; expecting too much, too quick is counterproductive and will only breed frustration.
2. Engage: to occupy the attention or efforts of (a person or persons)
   With all of the advancements in social media, engaging your clients, business partners, and prospects has never been easier and more affordable. You may need to take a little time to educate yourself about what are the most useful and appropriate social media tools for your business, but the resources are out there. With little time you can easily communicate with your audience and increase brand strength. Social media gives you an opportunity to share and initiate discussion with your followers and form a relationship with them. The relationship you build will foster customer loyalty and business success.
3. Enhance: to raise to a higher degree or to raise the value of
   An easy way to enhance your business in 2012 is to take a look at your brand statement or elevator speech. Have you re-evaluated these recently? Business is a changing entity and the message about your mission and services needs to continually evolve. For more information, great tips, useful links on composing a stellar elevator speech read our November Communication Corner.
4. Enrich: to add greater value or significance to
   Our own Jolynn Atkins, VP of Strategic Operations and Consulting Solutions, stands by the belief that she is forever a student of life. Make it your mission to continually to enrich your mind, skill set, and desires. Membership and active involvement in professional organizations is a wonderful way to stay knowledgeable about the latest developments in your industry while building your professional network. 
5. Enlighten: Illumine, edify, teach, inform
   Lead by example in 2012. Each of us bring unique talents to our offices and the best way to foster growth is to share what we know. If you're an executive, consider becoming a mentor to a fresh face in your field. Not only will you teach them invaluable lessons, but you will probably learn a thing or two as well. A mentoring relationship is a beautiful thing, because it is a mutually beneficial relationship. If on the other hand you are new to a field, don't be shy about approaching someone you admire and asking them for their guidance. Often we don't realize how much we have to contribute until someone asks us to share. Asking an experienced associate for their insight will both flatter and motivate them.
6. Enable: to make ready; equip (often used in combination)
   If you're going to have a successful year, you need to be equipped with the right tools and the only way to truly improve is by taking an honest look at our weaknesses. Regular feedback and constructive criticism both motivate and teach us how to be more effective employees, leaders, and coworkers. Return on Recognition® Program (ROR) is a new web based tool that revolutionizes the world of employee performance assessments. ROR® is a coaching system intended to encourage increased employee performance and engagement through positive, ongoing communication and recognition.
   Take advantage of the exlusive Insider ROR® offer. Email Regina Gormanly to get your copy.
7. Encourage: to inspire courage, hope, or spirit
   Corporate responsibility is crucial to your business and society as a whole. As you begin the year assess your company's level of involvement in your community. Do you have a charity of choice? If you do, is your relationship with them vibrant? Reach out to their community or corporate relations team member to find out if your organization can help with any current and crucial needs. Make sure  you are communicating your support and advocacy to your clients, partners, and employees. Hope is contagious and carries with it wonderful side effects such as customer loyalty, brand recognition, and increased employee morale.
8. Endure: to hold out against; sustain without impairment or yielding; undergo
   Our country was formed by groups of people looking for solutions in hard times. Perseverance is in our blood and it's the back bone of our culture. During difficult economic times like these we need to hold fast to the simple practices that have proven themselves invaluable throughout history. In 2012, hard work, respect, and responsible spending are the keys to weathering this economic storm. Keep your business practices honest and use your budget intelligently. This will help your business fiscally and project a responsible image to your clients, which will encourage their loyalty and repeat business.
9. Ensure: to secure or guarantee
   Guarantee yourself, your brand, and possibly your company that this will be a year of growth and profitability. Secure a prominent position in your market by using economical tools and concentrating on retention (of valuable employees and customers).  Sheryl Crowe states in her song Soak Up the Sun, "It's not having what you want, it's wanting what you've got." Often there is considerable potential and value surrounding us and the key to maximizing results is appreciating what we already have. Frequent communication and exclusive offers are a great way to retain existing clients (see Resolution 1, Engage). Opportunities for education and advancement are great retention tools for high-performing employees (See Resolutions 5 and 6, Enlighten and Enable). There are also a wide selection of affordable corporate training tools and software programs available. Ask Escoe Bliss how our highly qualified e-learning professionals can help with your next internal training project.
10. Enjoy! to experience with joy; take pleasure in
    Armed with your resolutions for 2012, you are a professional force to be reckoned with! The only remaining token of advice is, "the more the merrier!" Share, share, share with your colleagues, family and friends, and superiors and staff. A well trained soldier has a good shot at success, but a well trained army can't lose. Once you begin working in unison with others on these professional resolutions, you will begin to see the benefits for your office, brand, and community. Leaving you with the fun part; lots of reasons to celebrate!

e-Learning Evolution

New technologies and systems are rolling out one after another. In order for companies to stay competitive and retain top talent, they need the ability to train employees in a convenient, effective, and affordable manner.

The training and development world is buzzing with the latest releases of e-learning software. Here's your opportunity to learn about the latest developments and how they will help your organization grow and stay competitive. In order to keep up with the pace of innovation, company trainers and facilitators need access to e-learning software products that enable the creator to build courses easily and effectively.

Articulate and Adobe Captivate are currently the front-runners of the available software options. Both have various advantages and are making e-learning projects more interesting, interactive, and user-friendly.

If your organization is in the market for a leading-edge e-learning tool, there are a number of factors to keep in mind as you begin the process:

Articulate

• Identify specific training needs. Think of it as a shopping list. You probably wouldn't head to the grocery store without a list, so before you start investing in software make sure you know which key ingredients are missing from your corporate cupboard.
  
• Talk to your team. Opening up the lines of communication will help identify needs and give the IT experts a chance to weigh in on which software may work best with your current system(s).
  



Adobe Captivate 5.5

• Do your research. Compare the cost and capability of available e-learning software. Articulate and Adobe offer software specifics and demos on their websites. Don't be afraid to use your network either. Colleagues in your industry and even your competitors may be willing to share their choices and experiences. 

Your e-learning needs and Escoe Bliss

We work with your organization to assess your e-learning needs within your budget. For information on how we can help create or complete a successful e-learning project, call (949) 336-6444.

WANTED: Guest Bloggers

Please excuse the short blog for today. We are training a new hire (who will be featured in next week's blog). For today, we would like to throw a branch out there in hopes that our readers will grab on. We currently have a featured e-learning guest blogger, Jenise Cook, who dazzles us every third Monday of the month and are looking for other experts in training, development, OD, change management, project management, writing and editing. If you have a creative blogging voice, provide educational and interesting content, please let us know. We want to give our followers the most bang for their buck and to capture more readers. This is a volunteer assignment that will not only help our readers, but give you and your capabilities additional exposure. If you are someone you know would be interested, please email Jolynn Atkins, Manager of Consulting Solutions at jatkins@escoebliss.com for more information.

Thank you!

Our best,
The Escoe Bliss team

How to choose e-learning tools

In the March e-learning blog post, “Preparing for the e-Learning Consultant’s Arrival”, we took at look at how you can prepare your organization for the e-learning consultant’s arrival. A part of that process involves choosing the e-learning software tools to use for your project, a decision we’re going to look at this month.

The Consultant’s e-Learning Tool Box
The first thing to realize is that you want to choose the software tools that will be the best fit for your organization and your learners, and then worry about which consultant you’ll contract with for your project later.

e-Learning consultants generally fall into two camps:

• Specialists in a specific software tool.
• Generalists dedicated to proficiency in several tools.

Now, you’re free to focus on software choices for your organization’s purposes. Once you’ve purchased the tools you need, you’ll be able to partner with Escoe-Bliss to find a consultant proficient in the software.

The Most Common e-Learning Software Tools
We have no bias towards a specific software tool, and you can find many tools by searching for them on the Internet. We suggest the keywords “elearning software” or “e-learning software”. The alphabetical list below is by no means comprehensive, however, it reflects the most common tools used by corporations, academia, and government agencies:

• Adobe e-Learning Suite (Adobe)
• Articulate (Articulate)
• Camtasia (TechSmith)
• Captivate (Adobe)
• Flash (Adobe)
• Lectora (Trivantis)
• Raptivity (Harbinger Knowledge Products)
• ToolBook Instructor (SumTotal Systems)

The majority of these companies provide significant purchase discounts for non-profit and academic entities.

Choosing the Tool that’s Right for You
Most people tend to look at their organization’s budget first. I’d like to encourage you to think about money last. Instead, begin by analyzing your organization’s and your learners’ needs. When you place business and learning needs first, you’ll purchase the best tool with confidence, and avoid being stuck with a quick, cheap purchase that you could regret later.

One partner you’ll want to include at the very beginning of your analysis is your Information Technology (IT) department. Your IT folks know the ins-and-outs of your organization’s networks and other systems. Show them the above list, and any other tools you’ve found on your own. You’ll need your IT people to tell you what constraints you may need to consider not only for when the consultant is using the software on your systems at your location, but also when you deploy, or launch, the finished course to all of your learners.

And, think about your learners. You want to choose a tool that creates courses with flexible and easy-to-use navigation. You also want to make sure an interrupted learner can bookmark the course and return to the place where they left off at a later time, if needed. Most of the tools listed do provide that helpful feature.

Converting PowerPoint Presentations to e-Learning
Several of the tools listed above allow you to work with your existing PowerPoint slide decks, a bonus for learning organizations that have years of valuable content residing in PPT files.

Jenise Cook, M.A., is our featured guest blogger for 2010. Her posts will appear monthly on Blogging with Bliss. Her professionalism and passion for her work in documentation design, e-learning development, and media production radiate from her writing and we consider ourselves extremely fortunate to count her among our guest bloggers. Check out Jenise's previous e-learning series blogs, such as, Why Use an e-Learning Consultant? and What to Look for in an e-Learning Consultant in our archives.

Preparing for the e-Learning Consultant’s Arrival

It's Monday morning, and you're staring at the stack of candidate resumes you received from Escoe Bliss. You had no doubt they would find you e-learning consultants with the skills needed for your first e-learning project. Before you pick up the resume at the top of the stack, you're wondering: What will the consultant need to get the job done?

Every project is different, and it's important to have coffee, chocolate, and restroom facilities available. And, of course, you'll need to have the tools for developing and delivering the online courses, subjects I'll cover in future blog posts.

However, there are some things I've learned from experience that you can put in place for the consultant before she or he arrives at your site. In this blog post, I'm going to cover these topics:

• Learning Organization Leaders
  
• Subject Matter Experts
  
• Executive ("C") Level Sponsors

Learning Organization Leaders

Partner closely with your organization's training department. These departments can fall under an alphabet soup of different names, but they carry the torch for all learning and workplace performance activities in your organization. Make sure you have a tenured staff person from your learning organization to serve as the "go-to" expert, or liaison, for the consultant. He or she will need an ally who can smooth out the bumps that come up during the project.

Subject Matter Experts (SMEs)

An e-learning consultant relies on SMEs like we rely on oxygen. From my experience, SMEs openly share their knowledge on the course topic. They're usually glad to be in the company of someone who cares about their expertise and wants to pick their brains for the details needed for specific learning objectives.

The reality is, especially over this last year-and-a-half, SMEs are now performing the work of two-to-three colleagues (who were laid off) and have multiple projects on their work plates. They're "slammed", short on time to get their job done, and still have a nice annual performance review with a variety of other objectives that they are focused on meeting. Therefore, it's important for you and the SME's manager to give the SME permission to spend time with the e-learning consultant. Add some type of reward and recognition, and your project will soar to success.

Executive ("C") Level Sponsor

A couple of times, I worked on some e-learning projects where the primary project sponsor was at the V.P. level. The V.P. attended most of our project team meetings, and was a signature to sign off on the course at every review cycle. We had clear communications with the V.P. When we were about to deploy the course, the team presented it online to the one who signed everyone's check, an E.V.P. over the V.P.'s area. The result was a somewhat major revision of the course that delayed deployment for about two weeks.

So, unless you are 100% certain of your C-level executive sponsor's role, bring her or him to the project table very early on to understand and manage expectations. On another project, we brought the E.V.P. in at our brainstorming stage (the high-level detail design document phase) and we received excellent feedback that framed the direction of our development, and also a hearty "well done" after deployment.

Finally, feel free to prepare in other ways. Find out if the consultant prefers coffee, tea, or water; likes or doesn't like dark chocolate; and make sure his or her computer systems are all set up and ready to go the morning of that first day. Finally, a warm and welcoming attitude will win you a dedicated colleague.

How Escoe Bliss Can Help You

With over 15 years of leadership in consulting and workforce learning and performance, the professionals at Escoe Bliss have a large database of local talent at their fingertips. They can quickly assess your needs for an e-learning consultant, and work within your organization's budget. They can find the talent who will help you bring your e-learning project to successful completion. Escoe Bliss prides itself on our active and hands-on facilitation throughout the life-cycle of your project. We pledge to follow-up with our clients and our consultants by making regular quality checks from the time your project rolls out, until the time your project wraps up.

Jenise Cook, M.A., is our featured guest blogger for 2010. Her posts will appear monthly on Blogging with Bliss. Her professionalism and passion for her work in documentation design, e-learning development, and media production radiate from her writing and we consider ourselves extremely fortunate to count her among our guest bloggers. This is the third blog in Jenise's series on e-learning. Jenise's blogs on Why Use an e-Learning Consultant? and What to Look for in an e-Learning Consultant are the first of her series.

What to Look for in an e-Learning Consultant

Now that you have decided to contract with an e-learning consultant, what do you look for in the individual? What skills and experience do you highlight on the resumes you will receive?

The answers to the questions above vary depending on the type of project you have and your company’s culture. In this blog post, I’m going to highlight a few skills that I feel are essential for the success of your e-learning project. Please keep in mind that these are my opinions only, gained from “boots on the ground” experience. It’s important for you to know your organization’s needs intimately and to select a consultant who will be a good fit for you and your team.

Project Management Skills
In an ideal world project plans are always on time (or early) and always under budget. In reality, milestones slip and change orders may become frequent discussion items. To keep your e-learning project on task and in scope, look for a consultant who has three to five years proven experience either in project management or as a business analyst. In addition, ask if they have had some formal training or certification in either of these disciplines.

If the consultant has completed some training in project management or business analysis, and has worked in these disciplines, you will find a consultant who not only understands your global project plan but who can also help you manage it in terms of the specific e-learning deliverables.

For example, let’s say you are rolling out a new, Web-based administrative system to replace tasks currently completed in a paper-based environment. You see the need for an e-learning course to demonstrate this new system and explain its benefits to your staff. You have an extensive, six-month project plan where the e-learning development is one of many tasks you manage.

The e-learning consultant with experience in project management or business analysis can take a look at your overall plan and its milestones, and make realistic learning design and development recommendations. Most e-learning consultants follow ADDIE (Analyze Design Develop Implement Evaluate) for the management of learning projects. However, you need a consultant who truly understands the big picture so that you have a project team member who champions appropriate e-learning deliverables in a way that works best for both your project plan and your learners.

Instructional Design Skills
Yes, I know, this topic seems too obvious to mention. However, in addition to the project management skills, I feel you need to look for an e-learning consultant who not only has proven instructional design skills but also has a heart-felt passion for the adult learner. You are focused on your organization and its business results, and rightly so. That’s your job and you do it well. In the middle of hectic projects, the needs of the adult learners could get lost amid the razor-sharp focus on business results.

To have a successful, effective e-learning program that produces the workplace performance results you seek, you need a consultant who will remind everyone about the learner and what the learner needs from the course. You need an advocate for the learners who litigates for them in the court of your organization’s many opinions.

Communication and Relationship Skills
Although I list business communication and relationship skills last, they are the most important skills of all. You need an e-learning consultant who has excellent people skills. When your subject matter experts (SMEs) and your project stakeholders meet with the consultant you’ve chosen, you want someone who will effectively communicate the reasons why he or she recommends certain learning deliverables as an advocate for your learners. And yet, you also need someone who can do this with grace and respect, and who will work with your colleagues. You want to look forward to seeing the consultant instead of dreading his or her arrival at meetings. Look for someone who can collaborate with your colleagues and compromise when it’s important for your business.

How Escoe-Bliss Can Help You
With over 15 years of leadership in consulting and workforce learning and performance, the professionals at Escoe Bliss have a large database of local talent at their fingertips. They can quickly assess your needs for an e-learning consultant, and work within your organization’s budget. They can find the talent who will help you bring your e-learning project to successful completion.

Jenise Cook, M.A., will be a featured guest blogger for the Escoe Bliss team throughout 2010. Her posts will appear monthly on Blogging with Bliss. Her professionalism and passion for her work in documentation design, e-learning development, and media production radiate from her writing and we consider ourselves extremely fortunate to count her among our guest bloggers. The first blog in her series on e-learning was Why Use an e-Learning Consultant.

A Performance Analysis of Punxsutawney Phil

Here we are on the eve of Groundhogs Day! This evening a vast majority of Americans with spring fever will lay down their heads to sleep and think to themselves, "Please when I wake up tomorrow and check the daily news, PLEASE let the report tell us that our furry little friend, Punxsutawney Phil, did not see his blasted shadow and go back into hiding! COME ON, Spring!!!"

After all that is the rule. If Punxsutawney Phil sees his shadow and scurries back inside his cozy, little stump then we are cursed with six more weeks of winter, but should he prance out and chose to remain there, then we have the tantalizing prospect of an early spring. Let's pause for a second and consider the cause of this shadow that strikes so much fear into poor little Phil.....it's LIGHT! Without some source of light to illuminate himself, Phil would never see his shadow and therefore would not retreat. Still, isn't a shadow just another view or perspective of HIMSELF? For arguments sake let's even say that a shadow is perhaps a dark side of ourselves and sure, the dark side can be a little scary. Ultimately though, will scurrying away really make it disappear? Correct me if I'm wrong, but the little guy is still going to have the very same shadow six weeks from now. What I would like to propose to Phil is that spring may actually come sooner if instead of scurrying away from himself, he appreciated his shadow, analyzed his shadow and took the opportunity to learn from the light that has been shed on him.

Being always of an optimistic nature, Blogging with Bliss is vowing that should we encounter our shadow, we will not retreat for further hibernation. Our new blog format and our inclusion of outside contributors has been an inspiring and educational experience that we are confident will help bring everyone closer to an early "economic" spring by turning our "shadows" into learning opportunities . Our outstanding blog contributors have all explained valuable methods for shedding light on the truths within our organizations, our processes and ourselves.

Enrique Baltierra, SPHR, shared with us that, "The 'New' Diversity for a 'New' Decade" involves a culture of inclusion and engagement. Illustrating a successful organization as one that continually values, recognizes and encourages individual employee contribution.
Michael Wichman, CPT, talked with us about "GAPS" in performance and the many ways we can turn these "GAPS" into areas of growth and opportunity both internally, within our organizations and externally, by being active participants in our communities.
Jenise Cook, our featured blogger this year, will continue to blog on the third Monday of every month with an informative series of articles on e-Learning and its many benefits.
Peggy Rang, M.Ed., revisited the topic of performance and took us a step further, in her blog "Taking Performance Issues Beyond the Training Quick Fix". Peggy explained how a well thought out and well implemented performance improvement plan could produce meaningful and lasting results.

We are so thankful to our blog contributors who have started out the year with us and we cannot wait to share the contributions that are still to come. Mark your calendar on Mondays or subscribe to our RSS feed.

In closing, I hope that you will continue to follow Blogging with Bliss and our blog contributors as we move forward, exploring the shadows of our business practices and cultures and continuing to work to bring new life and new success to our organizations. Tomorrow morning Punxsutawney Phil may see his shadow and retreat for another six weeks of hibernation, but that's his choice. Shadow or no shadow, Blogging with Bliss will be here every Monday. When they are ready, Phil and anyone else who wants to hibernate is just going to have to try to catch up, because our growth and our spring is going to be moving six weeks ahead of schedule!

Happy Groundhogs Eve, everyone! Here's to everyone seeing our shadows and learning from them together!

Why Use an e-Learning Consultant?

No matter how you spell it, e‑Learning or eLearning, one day you and your organization will need assistance with your Web‑based, performance‑improvement initiative. That is, you need to publish learning activities online. Whether you are new to e‑Learning or you need to add talent to an existing, in‑house team, you can add value to your project by working with an e-Learning consultant. In addition, a consultant brings several savings to your organization.

First, as you may know, hiring a new employee doesn’t always happen overnight. It takes time to:

• Decide and describe the skills and qualifications the e-Learning professional must have.
• Get an employment requisition approved internally.
• Recruit and hire a full-time equivalent (FTE) addition to your staff.

By the time you bring a new employee on board, you may have lost two to three months of dedicated work on your e-Learning project. You can save time by using an e-Learning consultant.

Second, your organization can realize hard-dollar “savings” through what it won’t pay out in direct salary and fringe benefits. You don’t need to worry about paying for the e-Learning consultant’s benefits.

How Can Escoe Bliss Help You?

With over 15 years of leadership in consulting and workforce learning and performance, the professionals at Escoe Bliss have a large database of local talent at their fingertips. They can quickly assess your needs for an e-Learning consultant, and work within your organization’s budget. They can find the talent who will help you bring your e-Learning project to successful completion.

**Jenise Cook will be a featured blogger for the Escoe Bliss team throughout 2010. Jenise is a documentation design, e-learning development, and media production professional. You can look for her e-Learning related blogs on the 3rd Monday of every month. **