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Learning Without Scars

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LATEST NEWS

Transforming Course Registration

In today’s fast-evolving educational landscape, adaptability and efficiency are crucial. Learning Without Scars is leading the charge in enhancing the course registration experience, demonstrating a strong commitment to improving both student and client interactions. However, as with any major innovation, there are valuable lessons to be learned. By comparing Learning Without Scars’ advancements with the flexibility and ease of use found in third-party educational platforms, we gain a clearer understanding of the future direction of educational technology.

Continuous Improvements and Innovations

Learning Without Scars is actively refining its approach. Recent updates focus on streamlining the registration process, enhancing website navigation, and offering personalized support for students, clients, and staff. These efforts aim to provide a more compelling alternative to lower-cost options by boosting the value and efficiency of the Learning Without Scars platform.

Center of Excellence: Shaping the Future

Looking ahead, Learning Without Scars is working to establish a network of Centers of Excellence across the U.S., Canada, and beyond. This ambitious initiative aims to transform vocational training by reevaluating revenue-sharing and commission models, attracting top-tier talent, and securing valuable resources for long-term success.

New Learning Management Platform

The team members at Learning Without Scars are pleased to announce the official launch of our new education platform.

We are activating sections of our education offering as each one is completed.

Assessments are now available and soon to be followed by classes, certifications, and lectures.

Under the Education menu option, you will find 3 choices:

Certifications

We are pleased to offer you 3 certification levels for 5 departments. You will also be presented with 8 recommended prerequisite classes to ensure you have the base knowledge requirements for taking the certification.

Job Functions

This “Steps to Success” offering which takes advantage of a unique, job specific assessment to determine you your skill level to determine the recommended 8 classes to improve your knowledge.

Curriculums

A complete list of classes by department is available for your selection.


Your Feedback is Always Welcome

Please email ro*@******************rs.org with your questions or concerns.

We provide comprehensive online learning programs for employees starting with an individualized skills assessment. These assessments allow us to then create a personalized employee development program. From their assessed skills, the employee is asked to select from classes designed for their skill level which allow them to address the gaps in their knowledge level. This allows the employees to move through four progressive categories of learning: Developing, Beginning, Intermediate, and Advanced.

Information Stagnation

This guest blog is from Brad Stimmel. Brad Stimmel is the retired CEO of Ascendum Machinery.  He was also the President of the Volvo Dealer Advisory Council for 10 years. In addition, he was a 15 year member of the Executive Forum group that provided updates twice per year for studies in Executive Management led by the International Negotiation & Management Co. (INM). His rich experience and expertise brought about this writing on information stagnation.

Prior to this, Brad worked with 4 other dealers that represented major OEM’s such as Caterpillar, Komatsu, and Ingersoll Rand.  During his career he has served in various roles - Sales Representative, Service and Parts Manager, Remanufacturing Center Manager, Branch Manager, Regional Manager, and VP & General Manager. He has been in the construction and industrial equipment business for over 43 years serving always at the dealership level.

Brad Stimmel holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Engineering from North Carolina State University and an International Negotiation and Marketing degree from the Executive Management Institute.

Information Stagnation

Today’s “Digital Information Transition” is well underway for all equipment dealers willing to take the big step. Once dealer leadership has embraced it, all operations have more current information than ever before.  Many forward planning dealers have made great use of current technology to make better decisions that can leapfrog the past costly mistakes caused by delays in data collection and reports.  Most of the time, in the past the mistakes were identified long after the time to correct them had passed by.  If you have been around the business for a long length of time, then you know in the past that some reports or even financials were created monthly, quarterly, annually, or not available at all.  The ERP systems of today have evolved rapidly. More information is available on a real time basis. Drilling down into data is instantaneous. Dashboards are available by individual responsibility level.  Let us name this “Digital Awareness”.

Congratulations if your top management has embraced Digital Awareness. Sadly, many have yet to make the move. In some cases, this procrastination is appropriate.  This paper is written for those that are already making the digital transition and may be working to make the best use of this new powerhouse of current information.

Many of us remember the past times when the cliche “Analysis Paralysis” was used to describe spreadsheets of data that were historical in nature and caused a pause in action but no real current impactful corrective change at the operational level.

So, what are the pitfalls of Digital Awareness. Sometimes the free and easy access to real-time reports create an avalanche of graphs, comparisons, complex information communication, unrelatable information, misunderstandings, and false reports due to wrongly organized analysis.  This will now occur at all levels of the organization.  Sometimes the reports are created by the finance department and delivered to operational managers with not clear expectation of the decision needed to avoid mistakes or worse, no training as to what the graph even represents.

Now enters “Information Stagnation”.  The typical manager is faced with daily tasks that occupy most of his time and thoughts.   They have years of experience with real-time solutions that create customer and employee satisfaction, and these events happen every hour.  After all this has always been their primary objective.  There is little time left to work on improving company efficiency by acting on the new current information. This will require strategic planning and complete understanding of what is indicated by the data presented.  The data is available with high accuracy and floods the computer daily. Top managers of the company are likewise flooded with reports covering possibly all stores, or all departments, all inventories, all employee performance measure, or all financial metrics.  This overload is eventually eliminated by the employees who ignore the redundant or misunderstood report and send it to the digital basement. Not because of complacency but just a self-defense mechanism. The skilled employee goes back to what is familiar and comfortable based on the many years of experience they have collected over their career.

Is there a solution? Yes, but they are not easy steps to take.

First, do not let the CEO, CFO, or CIO embrace the temptation creating reports and force feeding the departments with an avalanche of data analysis.  I recently learned of a CFO that was exuberant about the capabilities of the new digital transition and created hundreds of graphical reports that were sent out to the managers. That CFO quickly realized that she had created information stagnation and set about ways to start correcting her mistake.

So, follow some simple steps.  The first step is to create a brief and simple set of measurable objectives for each main area of the company at the executive level. Then communicate these to each employee that has the responsibility to impact or improve these objectives. Of course, they should be broken down by department.  Next, create an orientation presentation that fosters trust in the new digital awareness data. TRUST is the key word here. The data must be clear, easy to read and pertinent to each person’s role.  Since communication at this point is critical, ask for follow up written confirmation of understanding of the objectives and the reports, dashboards, or graphs.  Most of the time this can be best completed with a task force of current experienced employees.  A team discussion is best and can be a good use of virtual meeting technology.  But if the company is large, a senior Digital Implementation Manager might be appropriate.  The new position will need to be a person that possesses good people skills and strong technical knowledge of the operations and the software.  This should come from within the company.  The primary objective will be how to best facilitate the transition and engagement.

The next step is leadership.  To prevent future “information stagnation” ongoing, executive leadership should create robust follow up communication measures with all levels to identify and celebrate successful objective completion.  This is the most difficult step because it requires the executive dedication of time and resources to accomplish.  Also, the intestinal fortitude to be continuously adapting and communicating the objectives and its measurable results as they are continuously evolving.  This is the step that will cause meaningful results improvement short and long term.  But each company will have to create its own methods to do this based on the organization circumstances.  Each executive manager should analyze the company’s true culture and then act.  Not doing this will cause the company to fall back to information stagnation in the future.

I spoke recently to a CEO of a large dealer that has been doing this for over three years with success but exclaimed to me that it is an ongoing evolution of subtle change and reinforcement.

Best of luck as you venture on this journey.

For more information on our classes and assessments, please visit us at Learning Without Scars.

 

 

October 22, 2020

With the advent of the cloud and other forms of computing such as ASP's we have perhaps lost sight of a huge transformation that is taking place right in front of our face.

In the year 2000 about 25% of all data was digitized and in fact 2002 was the first year that there was more digital storage than paper storage. let that sink in for a minute. That is a monumental statement.

By 2007 all digital forms, DVD's and CD's, memory cards and other digital devices accounted for 94% of the data storage capacity around the globe (these facts from Forbes) The total amount of data storage in 2012 will come to - are you ready for it - 2.7 zettabytes. That is 2.7 followed by 21 zeros. Isn't that ridiculous?

For years I used to struggle with people talking about reports coming out of the old fashioned batch type computers. I argued that it was data coming out not information in the voluminous reports. I still take the same position on most information that is reported to people. It isn't information it is data.

With the HUGE amount of digital data on the planet it is time we started to provide information. The people that need information on which to make decisions are weighed down by masses of data. This is a new skirmish that systems providers will have to start dealing with as we go forward. The time is now...

 

May 8, 2012

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