Archives

In restaurant training, our mistakes, as much as our successes, define us and can help steer us forward today. With this in mind, here are 10 lessons learned over the last 20 years of doing business that are now part of my thinking.

1. Think Marathon, Not Sprint

As your restaurant training career progresses, you encounter the same situations and people over and over.With this in mind, sometimes the best business decisions are made with a long-term goal in mind, even at the cost of sacrificing short-term gains. But, thinking of this as a long-term race, instead of your short-term goal this week, will help you make smarter decisions.

2. There Are Incredibly Smart People Who Will Help You If You Ask

One of my early mentors told me how he would reach out to people he admired and ask them a few questions. Always done in a respectful way and mindful of their time, he was successful in getting some great counsel and often a new friendship or relationship with this person. And damn if he wasn’t right – it totally works.

3. Leadership Doesn’t Need A Title

Don’t wait for the title to lead. In restaurant training, leadership is about helping the business succeed and helping those around you make that happen. Leadership is also about trust and those around you knowing you have their back. Too many young employees and managers feel like “When I get that title, I can really guide this place.” You should be thinking about how you can show leadership on your first day. If you know nothing else about what is going on, start to get to know people and what they are doing or working on, their background, and what makes them tick. Your influence starts with orientation. Good leaders don’t wait for titles.

4. How You Handle The Big Screw-Up

Over time, in restaurant training, you are going to make some colossal blunders. Epic screw-ups. Personally, I had a history of making all the right moves – uncannily so. Then 1-2 big missteps sent me rocketing backward. When failure eventually happens, how you handle it will define you. Do rise to the occasion and accept responsibility or do you fall in a pit, never to be heard from again? Do you blame everyone else, or do you face it head-on, smile, and say, “what’s next?” How you handle it sends a clear signal of your mettle to both friends and your business network. Leadership is as much about defeat as it is about success.

Click here for a free restaurant training toolkit 

That’s all I got for today! John

 

I read an interesting article written by Jason Nazar on Forbes.com this week titled“Counter intuitive Things the Most Successful People Do.” I thought it would be interesting to apply these traits to our world of training and development.

Isolate Yourself – to re energize. Many of us corporate trainers that are seemingly extroverts are introverts. If you recharge when by yourself, you need to seek out isolation from time to time.

Purposefully Offend – us corporate trainers are too worried about making everyone happy. Sometimes the only way to get someone’s attention is to call him or her out.

Seek Out Rejection – to get desensitized to the fear of it. Once we lose the fear of rejection we more easily go after what we want, and thus get more of it. Trust me this works!

Ignore Consensus – when your own data and foresight is convincingly contrary to the wisdom of the crowd (like Jobs, MLK, Gandhi). Consensus bonds us together and creates harmony, but it rarely moves us forward. Progress in eLearning sometimes has to come at the hands of an individual’s decisive disruption.

Expect Nothing – in return for helping your peers. Karma points are dispersed unexpectedly over decades, not in a scorecard of dollars.

Quit – those activities you’ll never win at, and take a new swing at the plate.

Self-Sabotage – yourself when you find yourself mired in complacency. In corporate training, don’t ever get too comfortable with the status quo, always be willing to blow it up and start all over again to truly create something better.

Abstain from Work – which others can do for you. Delegate every task that others can do 80% as well as you, and focus on those items that only you can achieve that have big payoffs. For example, hire a custom eLearning developer.

Plot & Scheme – your next couple moves ahead. If you don’t see the whole landscape of the playing field, you’re bound to get your butt kicked. In corporate training, know where you’re going far in advance of making your first move.

Underestimate Demand – for corporate training. Don’t ever assume people want what you got, and you’ll always have the appropriate amount of urgency and hustle to validate what you’re trying to achieve.

That’s all I got for today,  John

Why you Need to Purchase a HTML5 Authoring Tool

Reason #1: Flash based eLearning content won’t play on the iPad or  iPhone.

 

 

You get the picture of a Lego you see here…

 

 

Reason #2:  A recent survey of just over 1,600 business technology buyers, conducted by ChangeWave Research, found that 22 percent of respondents were planning to buy tablet computers during the second quarter of 2012. Bottom line…the iPad is not a fad and will have a HUGE effect on how you deliver eLearning in the very near future.

As a Learning and Development professional, you need to be able to deliver Mobile eLearning curriculum to Apple devices. Ideally you will have your Mobile eLearning program implemented before you get the calls, emails, texts, smoke signals from your students asking why they can’t take their eLearning on their iPads.

Reason #3: Delivering Mobile eLearning content to mobile devices is different. For example, you can’t take an eLearning course on an iPhone as the screen is much smaller.

Don’t Panic! All is well, thanks to the new crop of HTML5 Authoring Tools that will publish eLearning content that will play on mobile devices. These tools allow you to publish your content to HTML5 the new format that plays on mobile devices as well as computers. 

Sign up for a free trial of Claro a Web based authoring tool that creates eLearning content in HTML5 format.  Then create and test a course on your eLearning system.

 

Click this link for a free trial of Claro  http://info.cogentys.com/free-trial-get-started-today?hsCtaTracking=53f110e9-d67c-4099-84dc-c18fa2fbe3f5%7Cfd3de6f2-0fa8-4f30-966e-0a0379b4c7aa

Other options include the soon to be released Articulate Storyline as well as Captivate 5.5 .  The Captivate tool converts Flash based eLearning into HTML5 format.  Really slick!!!

Hope this post helps. If you have questions give me a call 323 466 6806 or drop me an email john.lawrence@cogentys.com

John

How to Create Custom eLearning Courses for the Restaurant Industry

With eLearning programs being rapidly implemented in the Restaurant Business, many training and development professionals  come to us for guidance on how to create their own custom eLearning content. Follow these simple steps and you will be on your way in no time.

First

Find the PowerPoint slides you have been using in your live Restaurant Training events

 The good news is that eLearning Authoring tools are designed to take your existing PowerPoint presentations and turn them into eLearning material.

Next

Purchase a Rapid eLearning Authoring Tool

We really like working with Claro by Domiknow. Claro is a Web based authoring tool that produces eLearning in multiple formats including HTML5 so your Custom Restaurant eLearning Courses will play on all devices including iPads. One big advantage of Claro is your team can collaborate in multiple locations to produce eLearning material as Claro is Web based.

Click Below to download a free trial of Claro
http://www.cogentys.com/lms/mobile-learning/

Then

Import your PowerPoint into Claro

One great thing about Web based tools is that there many video tutorials available to show you the ropes. So don’t panic! All is well. Then you want to add test questions. Not to worry, this is easy and straightforward and lots of tutorials available if you get stuck.

At this point you could actually push the “publish” button. WARNING! Don’t do this. Everyone will hate you because your Custom Restaurant eLearning Course will be painfully boring. Why? Because it won’t have your charming self presenting the material to add interest and excitement.

So, you need to add animations to make stuff move around. Don’t panic! Lots of tutorials available. Also, you should add vocal tracks as well. If you want to get fancy and I know you do, you should also add background music to add depth to your content.

You can actually download background music for free at Soundcloud.

Click link below to visit Soundcloud

http://soundcloud.com/

Finally

Push the “Publish’ button

From there, upload to your LMS. If you don’t have a LMS, we can help with that also.

Click below for a free trial of the Cogentys Learning Management System

http://info.cogentys.com/request-a-free-trial

That’s all I got for you today. Questions? Call me in the studio at 323 466 6806 or drop me an email at john.lawrence@cogentys.com

HTML5 Authoring Tools for Mobile LMS

HTML5 seems to be gaining momentum every hour of every day. Why? Because Corporate America wants to access their eLearning on their iPad. Period! Our phones are ringing off the hook!  This is good…and bad as many eLearning professionals are behind the curve on implementing HTML5 for their Mobile LMS programs.

We can Help You!

Point #1: Always feel free to call us at 323 466 6800.  We are happy to get you set up with HTML5 Authoring Tools for your Mobile LMS.

Point #2: We really like working with Claro by Domiknow. Claro is a Web based authoring tool that produces eLearning in multiple formats including HTML5. One big advantage of Claro is your team can collaborate in multiple locations to produce eLearning material that will play on multiple devices including the iPhone and iPad.

Click Below to download a free trial of Claro
http://www.cogentys.com/lms/mobile-learning/

 

Point #3:  We Really like working with Articulate Storyline.
The soon to be released Articulate Storyline will enable beginners all the way through seasoned instructional designers to create professional looking highly interactive very customizable eLearning in multiple formats including HTML5.

We uploaded the latest Beta version of Storyline last week and are happy to report the program works great.

Click below to sign up for the Storyline Beta

http://www.articulate.com/storyline/

We tested the Storyline course we created on the iPad using the Articulate Mobile Player App we downloaded from the Apple Store.  Really plays well!

Click below to download the free App.

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/articulate-mobile-player/id505546381?mt=8

That’s all I got for today!  John

What Is HIPAA?

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services issued the Privacy Rule to implement the requirement of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (“HIPAA”). The Privacy Rule standards address the use and disclosure of individuals’ health information called “protected health information” by organizations subject to the Privacy Rule  “covered entities,” as well as standards for individuals’ privacy rights to understand and control how their personal health information is used.

HIPAA Compliance:

Although HIPAA compliance is voluntary, the Office of Civil Rights (OCR) may conduct compliance reviews and investigate complaints alleging that patient safety work product has been disclosed in violation of the confidentiality provisions.

The Penalty for HIPAA Violations:

This is where it gets serious!  If OCR determines that a violation has occurred, OCR may impose a civil money penalty of up to $11,000 per violation. Ouch!

According to the OCR, the largest settlements for HIPAA violations include:

CVS Caremark Co.: $2.25 million, February 2009
Blue Cross Blue Shield of Tennessee: $1.5 million, March 13, 2012
Rite Aid: $1 million, July 2010
Massachusetts General Hospital: $1 million, February 2011
University of California at Los Angeles Health System: $865,500, July 2011

How to Implement a HIPAA Training Program:

That’s where we can help.  We have a great course that can be customised to your organization and implemented in as soon as 5 working days.  For a free course sample, click here. http://www.cogentys.com/course-library/compliance-training/online-hipaa-training-course/

John