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

A Fresh New Concept in Hotel Training

Bottom line, most on line Hotel Training is boring, painful, tedious…well you get the point…The problem is that most Hotels look at Hotel Training as a “check the box” function.  Is the employee in compliance?  Yes or No.

If the outcome is simply Yes/No, then there is no incentive to actually teach anything so who cares if the on line Hotel Training Curriculum is crap.

The Fresh New Concept in Hotel Training… Results Based Hotel Training

Here’s how it works….

Step 1:  Identify Your Audience

Example:  Restaurant wait staff

Step 2:  Identify Your Desired Result

Example:  Increase revenue in your restaurant

 

Step 3: Identify the WIIFM (what’s in it for me) factor for your students

Example:  If you take this course, you will increase the amount your receive in tips

Step 4:  Measure the Results

Example:  Waiters who took this on line Hotel Training Course were able to increase their sales by an average of X% and their tips by an average of Y%.

Don’t over think this!  Were talking 3rd grade math here.  After you achieve your desired results from your training, tell everyone you know (and those you don’t) about the results of your on line Hotel Training.

So let’s get to work on your Results Based Hotel Training Course!

Develop real life scenarios in your training.  Have your highest performing wait staff develop best practices for communicating with customers. Once best practices are identified, communicate them in a fun interactive manner.  Maybe you shoot a short video of a wait staff/customer interaction.  You can also create animated interactions by using the many animation software programs available. We love Xtranormal.  Click here to see examples

http://www.cogentys.com/category/animation/

All of these interactions can be created in one of the many Authoring Tools available on the market today.

We work with and like these….and they are all available on a free trial basis

Articulate

http://www.articulate.com/

Captivate

http://success.adobe.com/en/na/sem/products/1110_2800_captivate.html?sdid=EQFQM&skwcid=TC|1026688|captivate||S|e|11962854862

Claro

http://www.dominknow.com/

I hope you found this post helpful.  If you have questions, drop me an email john.lawrence@cogentys.com or give me a call at 323 466 6806

John

How to Deliver Hotel Training in 2012

Thanks to recent developments in technology , 2012 marks the year that Hotel Training will become more affordable, efficient and well….. better then ever.

The iPad Changed Hotel Training Forever

According to Apple, during the last 12 months. the company has sold 32 million iPads,  and 72 million iPhones.  These devices are everywhere and are rapidly being deployed in Hotel properties around the world. Now you can purchase tablet computers to deliver your training curriculum to your employees. It’s cheap, efficient and easy to implement.

Step One: Confirm Internet Connectivity in your Locations

Chances are you already have broadband connectivity in your locations but before you do anything, check with your IT department. There are several types of broadband Internet connections including  DSL, T1 and fibre optic.  All will work.  Main thing to know here is that a dial up connection won’t work.

Step Two: Creating your Hotel Training Curriculum

There is currently a huge technology shift in technology.  In a nutshell, old eLearning material written in Flash wont play on mobile devices. Here is where HTML5,  the latest version of the core technology of the Internet comes in. All this means to you is that your eLearning material needs to be in a format that will play eLearning content in HTML5 format.

Category  1, Off the Shelf Hotel Training Courses you can purchase

The most popular off the shelf courses in Hotel Training are…

■ Code of Conduct
■ Fraud Awareness and Detection
■ PCI-DSS Compliance
■ Preventing Discrimination and Harassment
■ Preventing Workplace Violence
■ Responsible Social Media Use
■ Safe Driving
■ Workplace Diversity

Category  2, Custom eLearning

Adobe Captivate

Adobe Captivate will create HTML5 eLearning content.  Also, Adobe is building a tool that will convert your existing Adobe Captivate content into HTML5.

Click Below to Download Adobe Captivate 5.5

http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/captivate_html5

Claro

Another option is a web based authoring tool called Claro by DominKnow.  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/

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.

Click Below to sign up for the Storyline Beta

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

Step Three: Deliver and Measure your Hotel Training On-line

This is where you need a Learning Management System (LMS) to deliver and measure your Hotel Training curriculum.  There are many many many many options here.  You can get a free download of Moodle and figure it our yourself or you can work with a company like Cogentys that will hold your hand all the way through the implementation process and beyond.

So that’s all I have for today. I hope you found this post valuable.

Always feel free to visit out WebSite at www.cogentys.com or drop me an email at john@cogentys.com or give me a call at 323 466 6806

John

How to Deliver Retail Training in 2012

Thanks to recent developments in technology , 2012 marks the year that Retail Training will become more affordable, efficient and well….. better then ever.

The iPad Changed Retail Training Forever

According to Apple, during the last 12 months. the company has sold 32 million iPads,  and 72 million iPhones.  These devices are everywhere and are rapidly being deployed in retail stores around the world. Now you can purchase tablet computers to deliver your training curriculum to your employees. It’s cheap, efficient and easy to implement.

Step One: Confirm Internet Connectivity in your Store Locations

Chances are you already have broadband connectivity in your locations but before you do anything, check with your IT department. There are several types of broadband Internet connections including  DSL, T1 and fibre optic.  All will work.  Main thing to know here is that a dial up connection won’t work.

Step Two: Creating your Retail Training eLearning Curriculum

There is currently a huge technology shift in technology.  In a nutshell, old eLearning material written in Flash wont play on mobile devices. Here is where HTML5,  the latest version of the core technology of the Internet comes in. All this means to you is that your eLearning material needs to be in a format that will play eLearning content in HTML5 format.

Category  1, Off the Shelf Retail Training Courses you can purchase

The most popular off the shelf courses in Retail Training are…

■ Code of Conduct
■ Fraud Awareness and Detection
■ PCI-DSS Compliance
■ Preventing Discrimination and Harassment
■ Preventing Workplace Violence
■ Responsible Social Media Use
■ Safe Driving
■ Workplace Diversity

Category  2, Custom eLearning

Adobe Captivate

Adobe Captivate will create HTML5 eLearning content.  Also, Adobe is building a tool that will convert your existing Adobe Captivate content into HTML5.

Click Below to Download Adobe Captivate 5.5

http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/captivate_html5

Claro

Another option is a web based authoring tool called Claro by DominKnow.  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/

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.

Click Below to sign up for the Storyline Beta

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

Step Three: Deliver and Measure your Retail Training On-line

This is where you need a Learning Management System (LMS) to deliver and measure your Retail Training curriculum.  There are many many many many options here.  You can get a free download of Moodle and figure it our yourself or you can work with a company like Cogentys that will hold your hand all the way through the implementation process and beyond.

So that’s all I have for today. I hope you found this post valuable.

Always feel free to visit out WebSite at www.cogentys.com or drop me an email at john@cogentys.com or give me a call at 323 466 6806

John

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