August 19th, 2010 by Robin Green

Are you in the process of implementing change in your company? Change management training could save you a massive amount of time, money, and hassle. A Learning Management System (LMS) is the most effective and prevalent method of providing change management training to your management team.

Change management skills are critical for any company undergoing changes, small or large. Company changes may include processes, policies, or environment. Without strong change management, whatever initiative you you are implementing is likelier to fail. Employees won’t accept the change and and the desired results will either not happen or take ten times longer than they should to occur.

An LMS course in change management can train managers to manage and implement change, which includes educating and guiding employees during the transition period. A good LMS course will teach managers that the first tenet of change management is selling the idea of change to employees.

In order to manage and implement change, some basic marketing skills should be learned.

An LMS course will teach managers to educate all employees who will be affected by the initiative in a way that creates a desire for the change. The towel initiative of hotels across the globe is a good example of this strategy.

The signs in hotel bathrooms provide a short description of a problem (water scarcity) and a way to help mitigate it. The signs ask guests to save water by throwing the dirty towels in the bathtub, and leaving the rest untouched. The effect is that the guests feel a desire to respond positively to the iniative. Everyone wins; the hotel saves money and the guest leaves knowing that they have taken an environmentally friendly action. In the same way, managers must learn how to sell the idea of change to employees by first educating and then explaining the end objectives and ultimate rewards that employees can look forward to.

It’s a well-known fact that human beings are resistant to change. We resist all kinds of change, but obviously the kinds of negative change that affect us directly or indirectly are the most fought against. The way a manager handles change and educates employees about it can make or break the initiative. People still may not like the change but at least they will understand it and why it is happening, and perhaps be able to deal with it in a more constructive way. Furthermore, even though the short-term situation may seem difficult, the end result which benefits the company should also benefit them in some way.

Coggno is now offering a free trial for management training program creators on its learning management system. Create an online course for free, whether it be for internal use, for inclusion in Coggno’s E-learning Marketplace, or for outside syndication on hundreds of websites.

August 13th, 2010 by Robin Green

“ I walked into the conference room,  there were 8 team members sitting there waiting for me. I didn’t know who knew what, who was supposed to be doing what, and worst of all, hardly knew their names”.

When managing a team, particularly a team that is new to you one critical factor is evaluating their capabilities. Often, when taking over a group or a project, there is not much data or documentation that tells you about the capabilities of its members, and this can lead to serious problems when you begin to try and delegate responsibilities in an effective manner.

Often the previous manager, team lead, or director, was quickly moved, and left little or no notes pertaining t team members. So its left to you, the team lead to sort out how to effectively transfer knowledge, who has what strengths, and how to best capitalize on them.  Getting the soft skills evaluated can be easier; a group session by an intuitive manager can lead to some significant insights about his or her team. You can quickly become familiar with personalities and communication styles.  It’s the hard skills, the operational, or technical, performance abilities that are difficult to evaluate. This can be particularly critical when a group has been together for a long period of time.  Often team members will compensate for one and others strengths and weaknesses leading to a scrum of activity that makes it particularly difficult to evaluate who is doing, and responsible for what exactly.

An excellent way to avoid situations, and quickly and transparently asses and measure what everyone knows and what their strengths are is to deploy a pre meeting assessment on a hosted Learning Management System like Coggno.com .  By using an online learning platform, you can quickly and easily upload and deploy the quiz or test, and because you are not present while they are completing it, you don’t have the awkwardness inherent in an instructor lead evaluation, your audience won’t  feel judged. The evaluations also go a long o set a sense of inherent expectations, and project a measure of management discipline that you may be seeking when taking on a new team.

Using the Learning Management System at www.Coggno.com is a great cost effective way to facilitate this. The tools are intuitive and easy to use, there is no set-up fee, and best of all, the per-use system make it extremely cost effective.

The evaluations you create will go a long way to setting up a sense of inherent expectations, and project a measure of management discipline that you will be seeking when taking on a new team.

July 15th, 2010 by Robin Green

In the long run, the experience of training for a new job is critical for brand new staff. Many elements will later be heavily influenced by staff’s training experience, including staff morale and general attitude in the workplace, confidence in the company and its managing skills, pride and contentment in being a part of the company, and efficient work habits.

Engaging and effective training can make all the difference in the world in relation to these elements. That’s why it’s so important to design strong learning management system training; so that you get it right the first time. How can you get it right the first time using LMS tools?

In the words of Edward Bulwer-Lytton: “The best teacher is the one that suggests rather than dogmatizes and inspires his listener with the wish to teach himself.” If your training is created and conducted online, you have all the tools you need to let your training inspire its learners. In the training, when you’re introducing a new topic, use this model. Organize and construct your learning material in a way that doesn’t simply feed information to your learner, but presents a problem and provides the tools to help the learner solve it himself. Learning is doing.

Provide practical training through simulated real-life situations. Training for a role in a service team, for example, is something easily designated to your learning management system, with video tools, simulations, and audio tools like those used by Coggno, to create situations where an employee must deal with a customer. Some learning management systems are even bilingual or multi-lingual, providing a variety of built-in languages to personalize each employee’s training.

Coggno is now offering a free trial for training program creators on its learning management system. Create an online course for free, either for internal use,  for inclusion in Coggno’s E-learning Marketplace, or for outside syndication on hundreds of websites.

July 7th, 2010 by Robin Green

The FIFA World Cup Tournament, now in its last week, has been a source of both excitement and disappointment for many people. And, depending on where you are in the world, it may have also been a source of inconvenience in the work place or outside. If your staff are both trainees undergoing learning management system training and also football fans, you may have experienced absenteeism during the last few weeks.

In Buenos Aires last Sunday, I was at the supermarket working halfway through a long grocery list, when it was announced (at 2:00 pm, an hour before the Argentina vs. Mexico game) that the store was closing, and would reopen in about three hours. I respectfully stopped short on my list and grabbed only the essentials.

But this kind of thing happened at all levels in this city–from pilots to office workers calling in sick for days when their favorite teams would be playing. And perhaps it happened at your company. So how can you deal with football fever-induced absenteeism?

Remember, just as in football, flexibility is important not only for learning management system training, but for your management strategy as a whole. In football, flexibility improves ease and grace in movement, saves energy, and allows a greater range of motion. These are all benefits of flexibility in the workplace as well.

Flexibility is a must for strong learning management system training, management structures, departmental coordination, and employee relations in any company.

Allow employees to view important matches on TV in the staff room or other common area at work. Play a radio broadcast covering the games over the PA system to employees on the shop floor. Encourage employees to wear their team’s shirts on game days, and bring in flags and banners for their teams.

To be a good coach or manager, in the words of John Wooden, you must “Make sure that team members know they are working with you, not for you.” One way to do this is displaying flexibility during this special, once-every-four-year event.

Coggno is now offering a free trial for training program creators on its learning management system. Create an online course for free, either for internal use,  for inclusion in Coggno’s E-learning Marketplace, or for outside syndication on hundreds of websites.

July 1st, 2010 by Robin Green

In designing and improving your learning management system training, we can use the world’s most exciting tournament, the FIFA World Cup, as an example of great training in action. Consider the fact that during the World Cup, players are thrown into a new environment (most have never played together before) and must learn to work as a team in a short amount of time.

Sound familiar? This is exactly the situation in which your new employees find themselves while undergoing training to work for your company. The World Cup players already know the rules of soccer, of course, but they must also learn together the shared tactics that will lead their team to victory. They require training that not only helps them develop and learn these tactics, but that facilitates the creation of a sense of team unity which will lead to their success.

Collaboration and team spirit, with the sense of a common goal, are the secret to company success. They are the key elements in an increasingly global and service-oriented business world. Likewise, they are a must in training.

In learning management system training as well as product development, teams should be composed of a loose group of individuals working together to achieve a common goal within the company. These may be a group of individuals with different backgrounds, cultural identities, education, and language abilities.

HR managers become coaches, motivating employees, and not only teaching, but showing their team the roles they should adopt. In a recent study by a European company, it was reported that more than 80 percent of participants believed they learn day-to-day skills more effectively from their peers and leaders. Showing rather than just teaching permits staff to bond, since team members learn from each other’s strengths and weaknesses, abilities and experience. In this way, employees understand when and how to best tap into their team members’ expertise in a more significant and lasting way.

Coggno is now offering a free trial for training program creators on its learning management system. Create an online course for free, either for internal use,  for inclusion in Coggno’s E-learning Marketplace, or for outside syndication on hundreds of websites.

June 23rd, 2010 by Robin Green

The benefit of a learning management system (LMS) isn’t only the time and money saved, but the potential for creating a team learning experience that fortifies your staff unity and efficiency. But how do you train employees for continuous improvement and team thinking? Moreover, how can you create a group learning experience for your staff?

First, incorporate Kaizen into your company philosophy, and explain and demonstrate the concept in your training. As I mentioned in my previous post, Kaizen, the Japanese business philosophy of continuous improvement, is a philosophy which involves all employees, of every rank. It is quite different from outdated hierarchical improvement programs of “command and control”. Under Kaizen, all employees are encouraged to make suggestions to improve all processes of a business.

During LMS training, instill your trainees with the idea that they are not only valuable employees, but a team who works together to improve the company product and image. Staff don’t work for your company–they are your company.

Second, use your LMS to establish clear training goals and objectives for your staff. Let your LMS do the dirty work of tracking your students’ progress during training. An LMS is able to take care of many things including content management, agendas and announcements, collaboration methods, assignment management, and learning path developmet. An LMS plays a critical role in its ability to track staff progress–both individual and collective.

Third, create a team learning experience using your LMS. Try a strategy that serves two purposes. For example, introduce your staff to a new product or service, and allow them to practice developing strategies and solutions for that product or service. If the trainees are in sales or customer service, use your LMS to introduce the new product, deliver training on the product, and prompt trainees to work together to develop strategies and solutions to given situations when dealing with clients, and so on. These are just three among many ways you can reap the benefits of LMS training for your company–beyond the more financial and practical ones.

Coggno is now offering a free trial for training program creators on its learning management system. Create an online course for free, either for internal use,  for inclusion in Coggno’s E-learning Marketplace, or for outside syndication on hundreds of websites.

June 17th, 2010 by Robin Green

There’s been a lot of buzz recently about Kaizen, the Japanese word for “improvement” or “change for the better”. It’s a business process that was first implemented in Japanese businesses after World War II, and has since gained worldwide popularity. It’s been adopted by enormous corporations (like Toyota) and now smaller businesses are catching on. After it was mentioned in a March 2010 “This American Life” episode, it’s been appearing increasingly in blogs and forums.

What is Kaizen, and why should you consider teaching it as part of your learning management system training? Here are five facts about Kaizen that might help you decide whether or not to adopt it for your company.

First, Kaizen refers to the Japanese business practice that emphasizes continuous improvement of processes in manufacturing, engineering, supporting business processes, and management.

Second, Kaizen creates efficiency. It also eliminates waste–and not only material waste. Kaizen helps to create efficiency in a business and eliminates the waste of time.

Third, Kaizen is a day-to-day behavior that extends beyond simple productivity improvement of a business. It’s a process that humanizes the workplace and eliminates overly difficult work. According to Bunji Tozawa, “The idea is to nurture the company’s human resources as much as it is to praise and encourage participation in kaizen activities.”

Fourth, Kaizen refers to activities that continually improve ALL functions of a business. It’s a philosophy that involves all employees, from the CEO down. This makes it vastly different from the “command and control” improvement programs of the mid-twentieth century. Kaizen methodology involves a company-wide practice of making changes and monitoring results, and then adjusting. Large-scale pre-planning and extensive project scheduling are replaced by smaller experiments, which are able to be rapidly adapted as new improvements are suggested. Who can suggest? Anyone.

Fifth, A pay-per-use learning management system allows for the same continuous improvements–updates and upgrades, content and tool addition, etc.–to the actual training program that the Kaizen philosophy allows to happen on a daily basis on the ground level of a company.

Coggno is now offering a free trial for training program creators on its learning management system. Create an online course for free, either for internal use,  for inclusion in Coggno’s E-learning Marketplace, or for outside syndication on hundreds of websites.

June 10th, 2010 by Robin Green

For staff members beginning new positions, or for those learning a new skill, strong training is a hugely determinative element. If your staff starts off on the right foot, they’ll have a much better chance of staying there long-term.

As a trainer, how do you ensure that a short-term element is transformed into long-term one? How do you transform short-term knowledge into practice and ultimately, habit?

Using learning management system training courses, transferring knowledge from the short-term memory to long-term is a process easily facilitated. One of the most effective ways to help learners absorb course material is through repetitive review.

Here’s an analogy. Although you have probably parked your car in hundreds of places throughout your lifetime, you probably remember easily enough where it is each time you go to find it. And you just as easily forget where it was parked after you no longer need to find it there.

However, if one day you parked your car in a specific place in the parking lot, and then walked by it several times throughout that particular day, you might remember for days or even weeks where it was on that day.

This is a simple strategy for helping learners put course content into their long term memory. When your trainees learn something new, try to review the main points on the same day. Ask them to take notes on the learning management system material, and allow them to refer back to them as they practice.

Throughout the training course, ask your learners to complete activities, quizzes and case studies to test and practice applying their knowledge. End each module with a quiz which helps students remember all the material included in that section, and upon completing the course, include a final exam to prompt further practice.

Coggno’s features combined with the robust applications integrated with Coggno’s LMS, such as BB FlashBack screen recordings and Rapid Intake Unison, provide a powerful course development toolkit packed with simple and versatile options for making learning stick.

Coggno is now offering a free trial for online course creators on its learning management system. Create an online course for free, either for internal use, Coggno’s E-learning Marketplace, or for outside syndication on hundreds of websites.