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.

July 22nd, 2010 by Robin Green

Are you a new manager? Starting your new position may prove more difficult than you imagined. Suddenly you have new responsibilities to the people around you, and you must learn how to strike critical balances in your work policies and interpersonal relations. An LMS course can help, but so can some simple practices.

Practice tolerance and think outside the box. One mistake that new managers often make is to try to change everything. Remember, just because the way someone does something isn’t the way you’d do it, doesn’t mean it’s wrong. Decide what is worth changing and what is just different.

This leads into a second good practice for new managers; avoid showing everyone who is in charge. If you may have just been promoted to manager, you might feel that you know everything there is to know about your area. However, you still must learn how to manage other people, so be sure to listen to those in your group and ask for the input when you need it.

Third, take time to get to know the people you are managing. Even if you have worked beside these people for years, that doesn’t necessarily mean you really know them. Find out what’s exciting or interesting for them, how to motivate them, and what concerns they may have. If you get to know them as individuals, you will be able to more effectively manage them.

One recent poll showed that over half of new managers received absolutely no formal training before beginning the job. If you’re a new manager, be proactive in your own training and transition process. Pick up a course on an online learning platform like Coggno. Free courses include a Sample Negotiation Presentation, Conflict in Workplaces, and L19-Influence. For new managers there are courses such as 6 Steps to a Successful Start as a New Manager, which offers practical tips and strategies to help new managers successfully move into their new leadership role.

Coggno’s LMS combines state-of-the-art tools with quality content to provide managers and all students a memorable and effective learning experience. 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.

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.

March 1st, 2010 by Robin Green

Business process outsourcing is fast becoming the norm among large-scale companies and businesses, and offers some outstanding benefits. But it can also be a complicated venture, which is why strong LMS or other online company training is crucial for organizing and training employees whose work is outsourced.

Business process outsourcing (BPO) refers specifically to the contracting of business processes to a third-party service provider, instead of having them performed inside the company. It can involve the outsourcing of basic business functions like human resources or finances and accounting (back office outsourcing). Or, it can include customer-related services like contact centers and user support teams (front office outsourcing). Offshore, nearshore, knowledge process, and legal process outsourcing are four sub-segments of business process outsourcing.

Of course, business process outsourcing (especially off- or near-shore) can save organizations a great deal of money. Everything from labor to overhead costs like electricity and water bills becomes cheaper. However, it also means that it becomes increasingly important that employees are part of a supportive and efficient training system, in order to ensure successful distance team work.

BPO is nothing new. Outsourcing itself can be traced to as early as the 1830’s, when the U.S. commissioned workers in Scotland to build ship sales and wagon covers. By the 1970’s many computer companies were outsourcing their payroll preparation systems to different financial offices who offered these services. Manufacturing companies like Coca-Cola also began to use business process outsourcing, and more and more businesses caught on to the trend as the 70’s passed. By 1980, almost all company accounting tasks, as well as other kinds of work, were being sent outside company walls.

In relation to the frequency of business process outsourcing taking place, companies are paying greater attention to their learning management system training and other online training systems. Everyone wants to secure a process that works for his or her company, to reduce the cost of training by finding a customized solution and making it both adaptable and repeatable.

It’s never been uncommon for organizations to outsource content development, such as learning programs, management and company training, including tasks such as the production of books, training materials, videos, and other educational materials.  LMS vendors offer benefits such as flexibility, customization, and cost-effectiveness to organizations using BPO.

In the past, before learning management systems and other online training systems, training employees was a more decentralized process. Oftentimes, companies could not even be sure how much money they were spending on training across their enterprise. The process varied widely from group to group, and company to company.

Companies who use business process outsourcing can save money if they are able to centralize and repeat the process of training. This is where learning management systems are useful, since they allow users to create and deliver customized training solutions. Companies can make training their own, integrated with their logo and corporate color scheme. Learning management systems that use a pay-per-use business model make it easy to load and reload learning content as required for relevant, up-to-date training. This model allows organizations to help employees gain the skills and knowledge required in exactly the period of time necessary.