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So, What Are We Doing?

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So, what are we doing?

When we looked at our mission in the internet-based learning business we had to face a series of questions:

 To whom will we be providing our learning products?
 How will we be able to reach the student base?
 How will we measure our ability to provide learning to the student base?
 What will be the learning objectives for each of our programs?
 How important will our learning business become to the employers?

These questions, and many more, caused us some serious reflection time.

We had come from a classroom setting with Quest, Learning Centers. We offered traditional training in two, and three day, programs. We were focused on the management and supervision at equipment dealerships. We had started providing this training in the early 1990’s when most of the OEM’s (Original Equipment Manufacturers) stopped providing their dealers with their own management training classes. They stopped providing this training due to costs. We decided we enter this market and satisfy what was still an important need; training managers and supervisors in parts and service to improve their performance for them personally and for their dealerships.

We created a lot of content. Each of our classes covered 15 hours in the classroom and we provided a “text” book each of which were approximately 250 pages. We had nine such text books and offered nine different classes. In the more than twenty years that we did the classroom training we covered North America, Europe, Asia, South America, Russia and the Middle East. We had several thousand people taking classes.

Then dealer needs for training evolved.  There were different vehicles that management wanted to try to reduce the costs of training. Along came the webinar. As a teacher I wasn’t very excited about teaching online via a power point with me talking to a group of people who were looking at my screen and hearing my voice. I had no idea if they were “getting it” or perhaps they were doing other things at the same time. However, one of the things it did do is that if forced us to develop products that had a shorter duration. We developed webinars that were designed for 45 to 60 minutes in length.

At last we arrive at the place where we were confronting what the future of learning was going to look like. I wasn’t that interested in travelling all over the world to teach in classrooms and webinars didn’t strike as a good vehicle from which to teach people.
• We chose the internet as the delivery system.
• We chose slide shows, audio tracks and film clips as the vehicle.
• We chose pre-tests, final assessments, and opinion surveys as measurement.
• We chose “badges” as our “certification measurement tool.”

The goal was to keep the cost down and employee learning time investment at the lowest level possible. Then, based on customer input, we determined that the learning programs should be job function related not management and supervision related.

We have plans to be offering 117 two-hour Learning On Demand (LOD) classes, then there are 25 job function programs we call Planning Specific Program (PSP) classes. Each of these programs covers four two-hour classes, and we also have leadership classes we call Planned Learning Programs (PLP). Each of these programs covers ten two-hour classes. We will introduce our Virtual Classroom (VCR) programs in 2019. These classes are for fast track employees and consist of five classes requiring ten hours of learning.

We are redesigning the LOD’s to break the two-hour class into three sections, each section will be about 30 minutes ending with an essay question. We are introducing this in 2019 with our third-year programs, The Final Staging, within the PLP’s then we will redo each of the programs for the Building Blocks and finally The Framework.

We have also changed our reporting to the clients. Each month we send out a progress report to each dealer showing each student and four or five steps or progress. Program Progress, Pretest Results, Final Assessments, Surveys, and Certificates. This allows the students and their employer to track the progress of the individual learning path. We are sincerely interested in providing each student with an employee development program.

We are finalizing our badge structure which we will introduce to you in a later blog.

The Time is Now.

A Reintroduction

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A Reintroduction

We are very pleased to announce the latest news from Learning Without Scars.

Our goal here at Learning Without Scars is to provide cost effective, comprehensive, content-rich dynamic learning products. We have developed these programs from the classroom programs which we used and which evolved from our training assignments worldwide over the past thirty years. These programs have been used in our classroom programs attended by over ten thousand people worldwide. The content has also been derived from our consulting engagements with several thousand dealers across the world.

In the past several years, online learning software has advanced to allow the online based learning experience to become much more effective. It has allowed measurement of the content absorbed by each student, even when their teacher is not in the room with them. We have adapted these learning software programs to our training and learning products. The foundation for all of our learning programs is a subject specific program we call Learning: On Demand (LOD.)

The Learning: On Demand (LOD) products cover specific learning objectives through four stages; preparatory reading, a pre-test, an audio video presentation consisting of a slide show with audio tracks and film clips inserted at strategic positions throughout the programs, as well as a final assessment of the learning absorbed. There are currently more than eighty of these programs. Each program requires an investment of two hours from each adult student. At the conclusion of each program there is a program evaluation.
The Learning: On Demand (LOD) products have been used as a foundation for our job specific programs, called Planned Specific Programs (PSP), as well as our Virtual Classroom programs (VCR). They are also packaged in our management training programs which we call Planned Learning Programs (PLP).

With the Planned Specific Programs (PSP) we are providing training opportunities to specific job functions. Each PSP provides four different programs requiring eight hours of learning. We offer twenty-two of these programs across the parts, service and product support selling and marketing groups. Employee development within the job functions spans three years and cover different levels of learning; fundamentals, advanced and professional.

The Virtual Classroom (VCR) programs which will be introduced in 2019 are for individuals identified as earning a “fast track” of training. This is a four-year program with each year requiring ten hours of learning. It is intended that the VCR programs will be capped with the final year of the Planned Learning Programs (PLP).

There are eight learning products available in the “Planned Learning Program. (PLP)” The intent of the program is to provide a path for individual professional development for the management and supervision of the Parts Business and the Service Business over the course of three years. There are also Learning Products available for Product Support Selling and Parts & Service Marketing groups. The planned program (PLP) provides ten classes each year which requires an investment of twenty hours of personal time from each student.

We at Learning Without Scars are pleased to present to you our latest learning model, tailor made for 21st century employee development, in these extensive and comprehensive Learning Without Scars programs.

The time is now.

Management Mentoring and Coaching Program Continued

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Management Mentoring and Coaching Program Continued

This week, we are continuing our discussion of the new Mentoring and Coaching Program we are now offering here at LWS.  Last week, we discussed the first component of the program, with our Learning On Demand Programs for Managers.  This week we are covering the next component of our program: films.  These films will be used to expand upon the knowledge students will gain in the individual Mentoring and Coaching Program.

B. Films

Using a Skype call or GoToMeeting the manager will watch a specialized training film. These films are designed to build upon the foundational skills presented in each Learning On Demand program, therefore refining the skill set of each manager. Upon completion of the film, the manager will be engaged in a real-time discussion about the content and how it applies to the job.
We will recommend specific film topics that apply to the work of the manager. For instance:

A. The Business of Paradigms
B. The Unorganized Manager.
C. Flight of the Buffalo
D. Performance Matters – Praise
E. Performance Matters – Criticism
F. The Clarity Imperative
G. Gung Ho
H. Leadership: An Act of Possibility
I. The Three Signs of a Miserable Job
J. The Five Dysfunctions of a Team

 

Next week, we will cover the third, and final, portion of the Mentoring and Coaching Program.

 

The time is now.

Management Mentoring and Coaching

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Management Mentoring and Coaching Program

A coach’s job is to bring out the best in the individual and the team.

We always work here to develop programs that fill needs within our industry.  We have now developed a mentoring and coaching program addressing client needs in the area of individual employee development. We were approached with the need to assist with individual managers in accelerating their development on the job. This also covered those instances where an employee was having difficulty in adjusting to a new role.

These programs have been divided into three pieces: Learning On Demand, Films and Work Assignments.  Over the course of this next week, we are going to tackle each of these pieces in an individual post.

Learning On Demand

The Learning On Demand programs consist of a pre-test, a video program and a final assessment. The course program itself lasts approximately two hours.  There will be discussions with the manager to review the program and to consider specific action items for the week ahead after the course has been completed.

We will recommend Specific Learning Programs – LOD – that apply to the work of the manager. For instance:
1. Basic Management
2. Leadership
3. Make It Matter
4. Time Management
5. Change
6. The Art of the Possible
7. Standards of Performance
8. Best Practices
9. The Balanced Scorecard
10. Activity Based Management

These programs will be enhanced, and the individual learning and knowledge deepened, with individualized coaching to follow up on the classes.  In addition, Ron tailors live online coursework for each manager who is taking a Mentoring and Coaching program.

Next, we will cover the learning films that Ron uses to build upon the knowledge in the online courses.

The time is now.

Breaking Down Territory Management

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Breaking Down Territory Management

In our training programs, we work hard to de-mystify the details of selling.  Today, I am sharing a small piece from our Territory Management Learning On Demand program.

The time is now.