Many colleagues have reached out to me on this since early March and I, too, have been taking classes historically only offered f2f into the VILT arena where I have enjoyed leading learning events since 2015.  Whether you have ready access to my books or not, I want to offer some help to those of you feeling the crunch of “convert our f2f programs to online,” “cut that program back…it needs to be shorter,” and “we need this yesterday.”  ​

​If you have Same Training, Half the Time, grab your copy.  If you don’t, scroll down for some quick hits.  

Yes, I Have Same Training, Half the Time!

1. Flip to the Introduction and a add a sixth bullet point on page 1: “COVID-19 has changed the face of learning and development for us.”  Then read this eight-page section to remind yourself that the challenge isn’t a new one for the profession, even if you are currently under new and intense time pressures and software learning curves.
   
   
2. Head to page 143 from there (Chapter 8) and read Part One – just six pages.  This takes you back to the basics of what makes great training; let this content be the beacon that guides you safely into port as you navigate with wild-eyed-wonder all the bright and shiny possibilities of the new tools you are exploring for your redesign.  Skip ahead to page 156 for the Trainer Hacks for Condensed Timing without a Course Redesign; you will want to leverage 11 of the dozen strategies there.
   
   
3. Turn back to page 79.  Read through Chapters 5, 6, and 7 with a highlighter and notepad at hand.  Annotate and record the ideas these pages inspire as you encounter them.  While written to guide you through designing a complete learning solution that supports building a development continuum versus a “class,” these chapters provide direction for creating before, during, and after training components.  You can take them at face value.  Or, take it up a notch and view these pages through the lens of your current reality.  Can you develop individual assets to push out more quickly than a “class”?  Are there existing tools in the form of job aids and worksheets in current programs that can be re-packaged and distributed to managers for immediate application?  What communications can you ghost-write for managers and supervisors for them use in their direct communications with staff?  The inspiration you can take from these pages is endless.
   
   
4. You are now going to be tempted to throw yourself into the work of putting your ideas into practice…resist that for just a moment.  Before you start building assets and redesigning courses, find page 63 and read Chapter 4.  It is less than nine pages of reading plus seven pages of exercise, and it is essential to identifying the content to include in your programs, and thereby, what to exclude from them.
   
   
5. Last step!  Turn to Chapter 10, page 165.  Review the tools, worksheets, and job aids assembled there (especially the job aids!) and download the files you want to use.  There are many more Resources available to you, but top picks should include:

• 8 Powerful Ways Managers Can Help Their Employees Make the Most of Training (distribute this three-page pdf to all of your learners’ managers)
• Free Resources from Same Training, Half the Time

 
No, I Don’t Have Same Training, Half the Time (Yet!)

Read these three blog posts and leave your digital footprints with some likes, shares, or comments:

• What Makes Training Great
• Make the Most of Limited Training Time and compare your course elements to the Six Essential Components to Maximize Learning
• Trigger Action with Learning Boosters

Tap into the same Resources as above:

• 8 Powerful Ways Managers Can Help Their Employees Make the Most of Training (distribute this three-page pdf to all of your learners’ managers)
• Free Resources from Same Training, Half the Time

Rejoice that Same Training, Half the Time is offered through Amazon Prime, and you can be holding your copy in days!
 
For Every Instructional Designer…
I will be sharing additional support, strategies, and resources for converting courses to online both on LinkedIn and here in the coming days and weeks.  Follow me and subscribe to my blog if these will be of interest to you.  And, if you have ideas to contribute to the collective community, I have created a blog entry for you to share your resources, tools, and lessons learned and demonstrate that collaboration is alive and well in our field!

Please share a link to this post with your network, and if you value the guidance of Same Training, Half the Time, I’d deeply appreciate your taking a moment to leave your review of it on Amazon.

​​©2020 Kimberly Devlin, All rights reserved

Each time I work with instructional designers, trainers, and others in the learning and development field, I learn something new.  The field is rich with collaborative, resource-sharing pros who thrive on finding faster, better, easier ways to do things -- and sharing them with peers. This post is dedicated space for just that. 

1. Know the capabilities and limitations of your platform.  Quite frankly, you may also be new to running virtual meetings. Before your group event, familiarize yourself with the tools and features and how to integrate them into your meeting processes. Time invested exploring the software or watching a brief online video tutorial will pay off during your meetings. A few sources to consider are:

• Zoom     
• Skype for Business      
• Go To Webinar     
• Webex      

​2. Give yourself more time than typical for the virtual meeting.  With many meeting members new to the tools and/or unaware of basic remote meeting etiquette, an extra 15 to 20 minutes will create space for sharing guidelines and a platform overview. It will also provide a cushion for delays brought on by inexperience with the tools or medium.

• Anticipating needing 30 minutes? Make it 45 minutes.
• Have a one-hour virtual meeting scheduled? Block 75 minutes instead.
• Planning to collaborate for two hours? Consider scheduling a two working blocks with a break between them. If you are tempted to provide a 10 minute break, ask all to set a timer for nine, giving them a full minute to return. Otherwise meeting members may return when it “feels like time is up”…which is likely to be in 15 minutes. 

 
3. Communicate expectations in advance.  Don’t wait until the meeting begins to define remote meeting etiquette. Email expectations to participants in advance – when the remote meeting is scheduled – and ask each meeting participant to:

• Check equipment in advance
• Use a headset with microphone if available
• Refrain from using the phone’s speaker setting
• Mute the phone line when not speaking
• Refrain from placing the call on hold to pick up outside calls
• Direct full attention to the remote meeting

 
4. Enlist support.  You are the meeting leader – not its Sherpa. When teaching managers how to lead meetings that Don’t Waste My Time,® I introduce the PLANNER framework. PLANNER’s “R” represents “responsibilities.” While there are many responsibilities meeting leaders will assign in any meeting, remote meetings with typically non-remote workers also require a technical assistant, and an IT degree isn’t a prerequisite. The technical assistant will demonstrate the platform tools, chat or text directly to participants needing additional guidance, and can even use an alternate contact channel (email or second phone line) to coach a virtual meeting member through such a gaffe as placing the remote meeting on hold.
 
5. Display guidelines and confirm participant readiness.  Those unfamiliar with remote work may find it surprisingly challenging to dedicate their attention to the virtual meeting. Take full advantage of the visual aspects of the platform and display a list of best practices in addition to stating them during the platform orientation segment of the meeting – participants getting oriented can miss a lot of what is being said as they look for pull down menus and chat fields. Lastly, before shifting into the content of the remote meeting, receive verbal confirmation of preparedness from all participants – you don’t want to begin thinking everyone is focused on the work when they may still be navigating the tool.

From this point on, all of the guidance for running effective, participatory meetings with the right people present should be followed as they would in any meeting you lead.

​©2020 Kimberly Devlin, All rights reserved

For a fast and practical guide to leading meetings that inspire, engage, and get results, check out Don’t Waste My Time in the SMARTER IN AN HOUR series. With it and 60 minutes, you will be on your way to boosting productivity!  And, if your team needs support because of too many ineffective meetings, consider EdTrek’s Don’t Waste My Time® training course.

​How did you do? How do you think you did? What criteria did you use to determine if each statement was an expectation or a goal? Well, it is time for a small confession—the activity was a bit of a trick exercise. None of the statements rise to being goals, and many of them are poor examples of expectations. What is worse is that all the statements were taken from either Internet articles offering them as great examples of goals for employees or from interviews with managers. They have only been mildly edited for the sake of anonymity.

Expectations vs. Goals
The difference between expectations and goals is that expectations specify desired behaviors and goals specify desired results. They also serve different functions in engaging staff, managing performance, and getting results. Expectations set standards of ongoing performance. Goals set targets intended to be achieved.

Both expectations and goals can change—in response to changes in the work environment, staffing levels, organizational shifts, or other reasons—but expectations are generally long-lasting ideals for employees to demonstrate consistently over time. Goals (work goals), on the other hand, once achieved are completed and new goals are created to take their place.

Establishing expectations must come first and then you can proceed to goal setting. What gives work goals their power to engage is that you and your employee create them together in the context of the organization’s goals and your expectations as the manager. EdTrek's RESULT framework from Maximizing Staff Potential™ defines six critical elements of effective goals. To read more about RESULT and how to implement it, turn to Chapter 2 of Focus on This, Not That.

Your Next Steps to Implement This:
If you are going it alone, start by establishing expectations and then set goals with employees.

Or (the easier option), with Focus On This, Not That in hand, use the Chapter 1 worksheets to effectively set and communicate employee expectations and then follow the RESULT framework in Chapter 2—it walks you through the process of setting powerful work goals.
​
​©2019 Kimberly Devlin, All rights reserved

Ron Popeil’s infomercial catch phrase "Set it and forget it!" helped generate more than $1 billion in sales of the Ronco Showtime Rotisserie. But, set it and forget it is a dangerous mantra for managers to adopt regarding expectations. This would be like planting a flower bed and never returning to water it, fertilize it, or deadhead flowers that have faded out of bloom. But, frequently that is just what happens in the workplace—about a week or two after annual performance reviews.

Keep in mind, expectations can change—in response to changes in the work environment, staffing levels, organizational shifts, or other reasons. Without your attention, established expectations can become outdated leaving employees potentially doing just what you asked of them but not what you need from them—through no fault of their own. 

The Fix: Discuss Performance Against Expectations on an Ongoing Basis 
Having defined expectations and established them with your employee, sharing regular feedback with her on her performance creates the expectations trifecta. Think about it, if you were coaching a new driver, would you wait until he drove into a ditch to redirect his performance?
​
Managers commonly do exactly that by not sharing timely corrective feedback—or any feedback. Some justify “it was just once—he won’t do that again,” others hope it was just once, and still others don’t even notice. That is, they don’t notice until the behavior becomes a pattern that requires them to focus on that—written reprimands, progressive discipline, counseling, or interviewing new candidates to replace a nonperformer—when they could focus on this—recognizing desirable performance as it happens and redirecting disappointing performance when it happens. There also are those who don’t notice performance failures until another employee complains about her peer’s performance or, worse, criticizes her manager for critiquing her performance while looking the other way when an officemate underperforms.

To avoid such mistakes, instead of adopting the set-it-and-forget-it mantra, managers would be better off adopting a don’t-expect-what-you-don’t-inspect mindset. Employees need to receive feedback and recognition at least weekly. Start paying attention and giving recognition and redirection as appropriate. Because, expectations that are not monitored are typically not maintained.
​
If your approaches to recognition and feedback are not getting the results you desire, check out Chapter 3 of Focus on This, Not That.  They are powerful tools when used correctly, which isn’t difficult—once you know how.

​©2019 Kimberly Devlin, All rights reserved

The ATD NEAC 2019 Conference had an informal theme last week: Cooking Up Learning. This entry is dedicated space for conference-goers to share their post-conference actions taken to "bake" their learning, to explain how they have put it into practice, and even to brag a bit about their recipes for success.  That is it on the food references!  So, what have YOU implemented since last week?  Have you:

• ...swapped out a passive, "push-based" course component for an active "pull-based" one? 
• ...found and integrated an opportunity for participants to play or explore as a way to learn in a program you are designing or leading?  
• ...set aside time to read 8 Powerful Ways Managers Can Help Their Employees Make the Most of Training and shared it with managers in your organization?
• ...discussed something that stuck with you from our session with a peer, your boss, or a client?
• ...or something else?

Please tell us all in the comments.  Keep the conference's momentum going.  Share your strategies, and extend the invitation to others to share theirs as well!

Let’s put the first A into context by taking a look at the 10,000-feet view of the model that I detail in Same Training, Half the Time:

• Step 1: Appreciate
• Step 2: Acknowledge
• Step 3: Ask
• Step 4: Apprehension
• Step 5: Alternatives

Step 1: Appreciate
Training is expendable. That may be difficult to accept, but it is true. Internal training teams are commonly a cost center, external consultants are an expense, learning events create opportunity costs by taking employees away from performing their jobs, and many courses and classes create no measurable improvement in performance. You can likely add your own reasons why training has been classified as expendable from your experience.

For all these reasons, every time you receive a request to provide a learning solution, be thankful and begin your meeting by expressing your gratitude. It is helpful to keep in mind that the training sponsors had a choice, and they chose to consider training as vital.

To show your appreciation for being asked to help, consider which of the following statements is appropriate to your situation.

• “I appreciate your thinking about performance support in relation to this initiative.”
• “It is always a pleasure to explore needs with your team.”
• “Thank you for thinking of me to look at this with you.”
• “I am grateful for the advance notice on this project request—this doesn’t always happen.”
• Or, craft your own.

The Appreciate step is about two forms of appreciation though—both gratitude and understanding. Having expressed a genuine statement of gratitude, you will want to learn as much as you can about what the requester envisions to develop your understanding – appreciation – of her mindset. Doing so will position you to inject Acknowledge, the next A, into the discussion. Gather information to develop your awareness with broad questions, such as:

•  “What can you tell me about why you want to do this now?”
• “What or who is the driving force behind this request?”
• “How did you arrive at this proposed course of action?”
• “Were there alternative approaches you considered or tried?”

As needed, ask clarifying questions in this segment of your discussion. What other questions will you add to this list?  (Share them as a comment, below.)

Only with a solid appreciation of the thought processes and events that led to the request, will you be ready to integrate Acknowledge into the discussion and then transition to Ask, and the remaining A’s.

​It sounds incredibly simple here and yet, in my experience, the two halves of Appreciate are rarely where scoping conversations begin. Set yourself apart by starting at the beginning; and in doing so, set yourself – and your project – up for success!
 
For more on Appreciate as well as guidance on the four remaining A’s, worked examples of five scenarios, and worksheets for planning your use of the Five A’s on your next project, check out Same Training, Half the Time.
​
©2018 Kimberly Devlin, All rights reserved

THE IDEA: Five meeting members were on the call at the scheduled start time, and the meeting leader began with a succinct chit-chat question that members began replying to briefly. One member clearly requested a shift of focus by replying with “I have a hard stop in 30 minutes.”  Said politely, it was a direct request to shift to the purpose of the meeting—and that is exactly what occurred.
 
 
Want another One Great Idea for meetings?  Read this one on meeting roles.

THE IDEA: Virginia said she asks a junior team member to be the meeting’s recorder as a content development opportunity. The senior people already have content expertise, and this allows the junior person to acquire content knowledge while actively participating.
​
How can Virginia’s strategy work for you?
 
For more on meeting strategies from Don’t Waste My Time, Expert Secrets for Meetings That Inspire, Engage, and Get Results, try these articles on planning, managing disruptive behavior, getting the right participation, having the right participants, and setting expectations.
​

Instead of posing many questions here, I could offer just one. The key question is “What is your plan?” Too often though, the response to it sounds like:

• “I’ll let you know when we are through”
• “I’m going to go in there and ‘wing’ it”
• “To get everyone’s input and buy-in”

None of these are plans. At best, the third is a goal. The problem with the one key question, as powerful as it is, is that it encompasses far more than most people consider. So, here are 14 questions that show some of the detail behind ‘What is your plan?” Begin with the first two to determine if a meeting is even needed.

1. What outcome(s) is the meeting intended to realize?
2. Is a meeting the best possible way to achieve the outcome(s)?

If “no,” ditch the meeting and take the better approach; if “yes,” continue answering these questions.

1. How does your agenda support achieving the outcome(s)?
2. When will your meeting end? (as in at what time?; not “when we finish everything.”)
3. What will each person attending be there to contribute?
4. What seating arrangement will best support your agenda?
5. What process tools and materials will facilitate outcome attainment?
6. How will you communicate your expectations of each person?
7. Who will be performing the functions required for your meeting?
8. What could go wrong, and what is your contingency plan?
9. How will you open the meeting?
10. How will you manage disruptive behavior?
11. What process will be used to determine next steps and assign action items?
12. How will follow through and follow up by managed?

 
As with many things in life, it is easy to sit back and criticize how badly a meeting was managed but not quite as easy to do a better job. Truthfully, it isn’t difficult to run an effective meeting, but it does require knowing what goes into one. These questions will set you down the right path to leading meetings that inspire, engage, and get results.
 
If you are in need of specific strategies to answer these questions and knock your meetings “outta the park” every time, my latest book does just that—in 60 minutes!  The first title in the Smarter In An Hour series, Don’t Waste My Time: Expert Secrets for Meetings That Inspire, Engage, and Get Results is now available on Amazon.

©2019 Kimberly Devlin, All rights reserved

Avoid these extremes by following three simple steps. First, with your meeting outcomes defined, consider what each potential participant will contribute in support of achieving the goal. Here are a few examples of what the right participants can contribute:

• Share valued content based on experience or expertise.
• Commit resources—money, materials, people, or others.
• Approve plans developed during the meeting.
• Accept responsibility for next steps.
• Represent an otherwise under-represented perspective in the meeting. (This contribution can be critical in certain situations. Post-meeting power plays and political posturing by the unrepresented can easily derail a meeting’s accomplishments after the fact.)
• Facilitate the meeting’s processes.
• Manage administrative needs such as documenting decisions, agreements, and results.

Second, determine if the people you are considering inviting will have decision-making authority during the meeting—either by default or by delegation. Delegated decision-making authority can work, as long as the ultimate decision maker will stand behind what his proxy committed to during the meeting.
​
And, third, before extending invitations, decide if it will be acceptable for invitees to send a representative, and if so, how the representative will participate. You don’t want a room full of stand-ins there to take notes on what happens—you want everyone present to be making things happen.
​ 
These three steps ensure you are asking the right contributors to be there and positioning the meeting to accomplish its goals in the time allotted—rendering it anything but a waste of time.
 
Looking for more guidance on boosting your productivity in group and one-on-one meetings? That is what Don’t Waste My Time: Expert Secrets for Meetings that Inspire, Engage and Get Results is all about.  Get your copy today and run better meetings tomorrow!

​©2019 Kimberly Devlin, All rights reserved

This really happened to a colleague. I am willing to wager that it has also happened to you or someone you know…
​
A newly hired senior vice president called a staff meeting to update her team on revisions to a mission-critical standard operating procedure (SOP) affecting the group’s work. A few weeks later, she confided her frustration with her staff to her executive coach: “I don’t get this place! Two weeks ago, I brought the whole team together to share this update. No one wrote a thing down or even brought a pen and pad. No one asked any questions either—I’m not even sure they were listening to me. And then, this morning, one of them sent a group email saying the process that had been in place—the one I updated them on—no longer works and needs to be revised. To make matters worse, two staff replied in agreement saying they experienced the same thing. I feel like I might lose my mind.” ​

In response, her coach asked a series of questions. Were the new work expectations specifically stated? “Well, no, but I literally told them how the SOP changed.” Did you tell them the purpose of the meeting in advance and ask them to arrive prepared to take notes on how their duties would be shifting? “Should I need to tell professionals to bring a pad and pen—to a meeting? And, being their boss, do I have to justify a reason for calling a meeting?” Did you send out a written summary of the meeting? “Well, no, but I told them all exactly how the SOP changed—and it seems no one put it together that I needed them to actually implement this change. Do I need to spoon-feed them everything?”

From the coach’s perspective the disconnect was obvious: The team did not follow up on implementing the SOP—because they weren’t asked to. It is a story that plays out time and again. Like a formulaic movie script, the details change, but the story remains the same. If you are re-living this story like Bill Murray in Groundhog Day, break the pattern with the Expectations component of the PLANNER framework for meetings. 

PLANNER’s Expectations
You can reasonably have the following expectations of your meeting participants—but only if you communicate them!

• Arrive prepared. People can amaze you with what they don’t do. In their defense, have you clarified what arriving prepared will look like?
• Participate. Meetings that lack participation can be awkward and uncomfortable. At the opposite extreme, meetings in which participants dominate, ramble, negate everything, introduce tangents, or “participate” in other counterproductive ways can be as or even more painful to experience. Yes, you want participation—but not all participation is created equally. If you expect people to automatically participate productively in response to “I’d like to have everyone’s participation today,” you will likely be disappointed. Instead, define what your desired participation for a given meeting looks like, communicate it to participants before the meeting, reiterate it at the meeting’s start, and restate it as needed throughout. Desired participation will not be static—it will and should vary for different meetings, based on the outcomes. A few examples of shifting participation needs include the following: remaining open to alternative approaches, two ideas from each person on X, identifying a positive aspect of an idea prior to critiquing it, and so on. 
• Refrain from counterproductive behaviors. Sure, we all want meeting participants to behave professionally and be productive contributors. How is it, then, that so many meetings are characterized by people who don’t and aren’t? Two chapters of Don’t Waste My Time  provide strategies to head off disruptive behavior and manage disruptions that still surface. For now though, recognize you need to set the expectation to be able to hold meeting members accountable.   
• Seek and achieve clarity on post-meeting expectations. To process how newly acquired information will affect them and what will be expected of them going forward, people need to ask questions, answer questions, offer examples describing their interpretation of the new expectations, seek direction on how to handle anomalies that arise, and much more.
• Take responsibility for post-meeting action items. The reason you are meeting in the first place is for things to happen. Once decisions have been made in support of the goals, follow-through is required. In essence, for a meeting to be successful, everyone there needs to know who will do what and by when—and then do it! Attendance isn’t the expectation; participation during the meeting and ownership of actions after the meeting are.

Reality Check: Did these expectations read like common sense to you? Are they lists of behaviors that “everyone knows” are expected of them? Do you think people should do all of these things without being told to?

Bottom line: Although you may not be wrong in answering yes to any of those questions, you would be wrong to believe that expected behaviors happen on their own. Meeting-fatigued individuals with competing demands for their time typically only rise to the standards explicitly required of them. If you don’t express your expectations, don’t be surprised when they are not met.  

Need the rest of the PLANNER framework to knock your meeting "outta the park"?  Chapter One of Don’t Waste My Time: Expert Secrets for Meetings that Inspire, Engage and Get Results won't waste yours.

​©2019 Kimberly Devlin, All rights reserved

It would be convenient if one-on-one meetings were somehow exempt from disruptions caused by the two participants. In reality, they aren’t. Whether pleasant conversations with people whose company you enjoy or tense conversations, one-on-one meetings can require you to manage disruptions.
​
Reality Check: Do you approach one-on-one meetings expecting an easy flow from one agenda item to the next?  If so, read on…

​The challenges that plague larger meetings can be equally disruptive to conversations—they just may surface differently in the smaller setting. For example:

• Tangents can sound more like stream-of-conscious chatter—but they still take you off task.
• Disengaging can look like multi-tasking, allowing interruptions, or being more attentive to what is happening nearby than the conversation itself—but it still disrupts the flow of the discussion.
• Too much humor can feel like catching up with a friend—but it still restricts productivity.

​In a meeting with greater participation, the group often calls attention to these behaviors by expressing frustration – loud sighs, eye rolling, or directly confronting the behavior that is wasting their time. When there are only two of you, your loss of focus may go unnoticed more easily and longer. When you get along well, unrelated topics may be more fun and interesting than the agenda. When you don’t get along, either of you may try to sidestep issues, deflect blame, avoid taking responsibility for action items, or withdraw.

Here are four simple strategies to ensure productive one-on-one meetings:

1. Begin with a question. Start off by asking: “Is this still a good time for you?” If it isn’t, you don’t want to begin only to find the other person distracted, rushed, or uninterested.
2. Stay alert. Recognize and react to behavior shifts as they are occurring. Small shifts back to focus will be easier to make, but you need to notice the behaviors to account for them.
3. Recognize that actions trump words. Place greater emphasis on what body language communicates than the words being said when the two are incongruent. When words say one thing and tone, posture, or facial expressions say another—chances are that the real message is going unspoken. Being attentive to body language requires listening with your eyes and your ears.
4. Take a break or plan to reconvene at another time. If the meeting is not achieving its goals, and there are only two of you, either one or both of you are the cause. Consider whether a short intermission or an extended hiatus will lead to a better outcome and reconnect then.

 
Looking for more guidance on boosting your productivity in group and one-on-one meetings? This post is based on Don’t Waste My Time: Expert Secrets for Meetings that Inspire, Engage and Get Results, which is full of tips and strategies ​to help you be more productive before, during, and after every meeting. A FREE pdf tip sheet to get a derailed meeting back on track: 4 Triggers of Disruptive Meeting Behaviors--and How to Deal with Them Positively and Effectively is also available. Check it out!

​©2019 Kimberly Devlin, All rights reserved

1. ​Step One: Define what your desired participation for a given meeting looks like. Desired participation will not be static—it will and should vary for different meetings, based on your planned outcomes. A few examples of shifting participation needs include: remaining open to alternative approaches, two ideas from each person on X, identifying a positive aspect of an idea prior to critiquing it, and so on.
2. Step Two: Communicate your participation expectations before the meeting. If you open your meeting with your expectations—you are starting late. Participating effectively during a meeting often requires preparing beforehand. You can use phrases such as these in your pre-meeting conversations or emails: “To ensure our time is productive, I am asking each of you to dedicate 20 minutes of preparation time to the following actions…” or “We will open the meeting with X, please arrive ready to share your Y.”
3. Step Three: Reiterate your participation expectations at the meeting’s start. One way to do this is to integrate them into your charted social agreements. It is harder to lose sight of expectations when they are prominently displayed.
4. Step Four: Restate your participation expectations as needed throughout. The bonus to charting your expectations, is that you can make a touchstone of them during the meeting—proactively and reactively. For example, transition to an agenda item with “Now is when I really need us all to X” for a proactive restatement. Or try “I’m sorry that I have let us get off track, to ensure we wrap up on time, let’s X” to diplomatically restate an expectation reactively.

 
Applying this four-step process will get you the right participation in your next meeting. And, if you deal extensively with one-on-one meetings, take a look at  4 Ways to Manage Disruptions in One-On-One Meetings.
 
Looking for more guidance on boosting your productivity in meetings? Grab your copy of Don’t Waste My Time: Expert Secrets for Meetings that Inspire, Engage and Get Results in the Smarter In An Hour series.  With it and 60 minutes, you will be on your way to boosting productivity!  And, if your team needs to improve time management because of too many ineffective meetings, consider EdTrek’s Don’t Waste My Time™ training course.
      

​©2019 Kimberly Devlin, All rights reserved

Shift your mindset. If you are responsible for developing teams’ skills, change the definition of your role from “creating learning events” to that of “building development continuums.” When you do, you will be able to enhance learning outcomes and regain lost training time. Building a development continuum requires designing a complete learning solution—one that prepares learners for the core course, provides multiple touchpoints to the body of content, integrates on-the-job application, provides support to learners after the core event, and taps into the frequently overlooked role played by learners’ managers. 

Reclaiming time on either side of the core learning event does not mean loading up learners with volumes of pre-reading. Nor does it mean sending them away from training events with binders of “additional resources” to wade through independently. Rather, reclaiming time is about generating awareness of, expectations for, excitement over, and learning strategies for the core event long before participants log on or walk into the training room. It is also about capitalizing on the time available in the core event and then creating follow-through, accountability, continued content exposure, and extended learning moments that connect back to the core event and the pre-event actions. 
 
Your continuum-building capacity is nearly endless. In Same Training, Half The Time I have outlined more than 50 ideas just for pre-training strategies in these six categories:

• Embrace tiny training.
• Educate learners’ managers (or supervisors).
• Build manager support tools.
• Create a communication campaign.
• Entice and excite learners.
• Integrate pre-work.

 
The strategies complement one another. The more you integrate, the more powerful their effect will be. Let’s look at two of the categories: embrace tiny training and create a communication campaign.
 
Tiny training can make training accessible to employees when and where they have time to focus on it, or when they need to access it. For example, if your organization’s workforce is mobile, are you leveraging podcasts that can be downloaded and listened to during flights or on long commutes prior to coming together? If there are skills employees perform infrequently but must be performed correctly, how can you make guided instruction available to them? Aim to make your tiny training modular and nonsequential for greatest flexibility and user-perceived value.
 
Build it and they will come is a chancy strategy for generating course interest and enrollment. Instead, take your communication cues from marketing professionals, event promoters, and advertising campaigns. They all have mastered the arts of building enthusiasm, generating hype, and creating value propositions that lead to engaged choices. You may have designed and developed an incredibly powerful course, but if no one knows about it, how useful is it really? You need a strategic communication plan to… communicate! Making time to build it will pay off exponentially.
 
Grab your copy of Same Training, Half the Time and jump right to chapters 5, 6, and 7 for design ideas in support of building a complete learning solution--before, during and after “the event.”

©2018 Kimberly Devlin, All rights reserved

When you receive requests for the same training in half the time, I’ll suggest that you focus on the donut—not the hole (unrealistic expectations, limited resources, misguided requests, and so on). Even small shifts count when moving the finish line on these requests. Focus less on how far the line gets moved and more on moving it. This will build momentum for bigger shifts on future projects. 

Moving the finish line means adjusting expectations. That may translate to reining in the deliverables. It may mean distributing the workload in new or creative ways. Perhaps it will mean finding middle ground regarding the duration of training, or allocating more time for building the training. It may even mean developing an entirely different vision of the end result (for example, instead of an instructor-led training—ILT—course, the final product may be a series of leader-led activities that are embedded in existing staff meetings). Adjusting your sponsor’s expectations can be minor or major—and in either case will be critical.

​Here are just three ways to move the finish line…
…an inch:

• Take a phased approach to the project. Deliverables may not change, but the implementation schedule can.

…50 yards:

• Instead of squeezing too much into a single e-learning event, divide course components into three categories and allow learners to select their participation level:
  • core (required)
  • critical (highly recommended)
  • complementary (optional)

…a mile:

• Convert a request for an instructor-led training to a series of leader-led activities embedded in existing staff meetings.

How have you moved the finish line in response to requests you have received? Tell us in the comments.
 
For more on moving the finish line, read Chapter 1 of Same Training, Half the Time.  

​©2018 Kimberly Devlin, All rights reserved

​Have you ever committed to do something for a friend only to have it slip your mind? Then, days or weeks later, a passing comment, commercial, or other trigger reminds you of it? And, even though you had every intention of following through, without the trigger it wouldn’t have happened?

​Learners experience the same phenomenon—even in the best-case scenario, in which they appreciate the learning opportunity, arrive motivated, value the course material, and intend to use it. When they return to work, they get hit by all that transpired while they were in training and often lose sight of their implementation plans. Learning boosters can refocus them on their action plans and implementation strategies.

Although any training reminder, including emails, can serve as a trigger to reignite learners’ commitment to taking action, you are encouraged to develop learning boosters with greater engagement in mind. Here are three ideas of what that might look like:

• In the days following training, learners schedule a post-training checkpoint with their managers to share their learning experience, intended implementation plans, and requested manager support.
• In the weeks following training, learners assess their skills application proficiency in a work situation by completing an after-action assessment tool.
• In the months following training, create opportunities for program graduates to come together with other interested alumni to practice skills, share best practices, clarify processes or models after attempting to follow them, receive feedback on performance, collaborate to resolve challenges faced, and so on. These can be trainer-led, department leader-led, or learner-led by volunteers.

Let these sample ideas inspire your thinking on the booster tools and processes you will build and distribute to learners to trigger after-training action. A longer list is included in Same Training, Half the Time.  (The Kindle version is currently free with Kindle Unlimited.) 

Share an idea you have for triggering transfer of learning in the comments!

​©2018 Kimberly Devlin, All rights reserved