Taking a Professional Development Course? Burn the PowerPoint Handouts!

I just finished delivering my umpteenth Project Management course at The University of Akron. I'm not 100% sure but I think this one edged me well beyond the 200th professional development course for the new millennium.

This particular class was a pretty good bunch - 19 individuals; mostly adult learners; about half of the group possessed a pretty good project management background; about half of the rest had virtually no project background; and the remaining handful varied in experience. These folks pushed my delivery techniques up about six notches beyond the normal course composition due to their widely varied experience and relative interest. But... I think I hurt their feelings. Here's why.

I've been noticing for nearly a decade that students are becoming more and more attracted to PowerPoint list presentations and almost frighteningly addicted to PowerPoint Handouts. (You know? That stack of 3 to a page images of my presentation slides along with lines to take notes) A significant part of the perception seems to be that, if you do not present using PowerPoint (or one of its little brothers), you do not know how to teach (I'll get to this in another post). Even more chilling is the attitude that, if you don't hand out detailed notes pages (based on your PowerPoint) you are doing something wrong. (That's what I want to cover here.)

Well, (OOPS...) My PowerPoints display minimal information and (GASP...) I don't like PowerPoint handout stacks. Here's why...

When I deliver a course that includes PowerPoint handouts, I consistently notice that the students don't take their own notes. Why should they? I've already written out all the information for them in the handouts. I've also noted, again consistently, that when I ask questions in the presence of handouts, students can't seem to respond with their own unique thoughts. Instead they fire back answers based on simply looking at the following slides in the handout stack. Easy as pie to learn when you need not think your own thoughts and you can peek ahead to see the line of discussion. The amount of learning going on in these scenarios is more closely focused on telling me what they think I want to hear than on what's genuinely in their heads.

On the other hand, when I teach without benefit of the PowerPoint handouts, students write voluminous notes. They also ask unique questions and respond to mine with answers from their own perspectives - their own experiences. They process what they're learning and apply it to their own realities. Learning genuinely happens in these classrooms and everyone benefits. In this environment, not only do the students stay mentally alert but they frequently pull me up to new perspectives and enable me to answer more complex questions while building new ideas into the next course.

So... I'm torn. Deliver courses with PowerPoint handouts or leave the handouts off the resource list? In terms of learning theory I know students retain more information longer when they have to listen and transfer the concepts in their minds into their own handwriting and jot them down. Involving the optimal number of senses in the delivery is without a doubt the way to go to deliver value. However, there are two interesting problems with all this: First - Students who have grown used to the PowerPoint experience will hammer the instructor on the evaluations if they don't get their handouts. Second - The university departments for which I've worked become upset when instructors don't deliver those vital handouts to students.

Lately I've been consuming the fruit punch and handing students the PowerPoint slide deck pages for their notes and my evaluations are way up but I'm not comfortable with the learning. Interesting dichotomy...

Working from Home...

Today I received a question from a friend about how he could convert his "corporate" training responsibilities (services) into home-based services.

In brief, getting at some potential answers to this question will depend on several scenarios:

• What is your vision for this initiative?
• In what ways does your vision match, or conflict with, the existing process?
• What is (are) your role(s) as tech trainer?
• What specific content do you teach?
• How are the training programs formatted & delivered?
• What role(s) do you play in development/delivery?
• What is the specific audience for each session?
• Is your proposed home-based work related to developing programs or delivering them?
• In what ways will the corporate culture support or inhibit your concept?
• What is the nature of your in-home office in terms of your ability to provide quality services?
• Will your existing programs convert easily to home-based delivery?
• Can your audience handle the conversion?
• Will you experience negative backlash when you are no longer available to conduct face-to-face operations (or when you reduce this time)?

Answer these questions and a high percentage of the request is going to become more clear.

Disposable Employees = Disposable Trust = Disposable Economy = Disposable Nations...

Below is my response to a recent post on BNET (One of the most useful Internet sites I have found.)

You can find the original here: Employee Loyalty is Dead. Good Riddance.

I was once told the my "altruism was going to get me fired." The speaker was an academic dean in a career position that I absolutely loved - teaching at a university that really needed what I had to offer. Unfortunately, I had purpose and ethics and felt that the knowledge delivered to my students was the most important value I could deliver to the enterprise. (In this case, I spoke out against grade inflation; a new football program that sacrificed academics in favor of attracting athletic numbers; and an apathetic tenured faculty.)

Shortly there-after, I discovered that my entire portfolio of highly specialized intellectual property (I had developed four unique courses and programs, three of which were part of the required curriculum.) had been absorbed by, was now "owned" by the enterprise and I found myself out of a job/career. As a contract employee I was completely disposable once the enterprise sucked me dry - or anytime I disagreed with anything that conflicted with the latest politically correct concept or propagandized belief.

Not only was I "removed" but I was completely and carefully ostracized from the entire campus community (people I thought of as friends). I never heard from any of my fellow faculty members again. Interestingly enough, since I was also pretty popular with students, I was quietly disposed of after they had all left for summer break. (Several of them hunted me down and we still connect now and then.)

I'm 57 years old and have been searching for an enterprise that valued my knowledge, skills, and capabilities, and one that was willing to allow me to fully apply them to a purpose larger than myself. Essentially, all I've wanted was a place where I could thrive and contribute to a community of value - to be considered something more than a piece of employment meat. What I have found is a long succession of the same old same old - enterprises operated by executive management according to what's minimally legal and who have carefully crafted the personnel and operational infrastructure to ensure they are never put at risk by individuals more capable than themselves.

I have been watching this mentality literally destroy my country and it is one of THE most significant disappointments in my life. Nearly a decade ago, I founded an organization that I thought would move beyond the petty scrabbling of personal greed into a valuable service arena - only to discover that management had once again ensured its own plush lifestyle and, once sucked dry, I was no longer welcome. Once again - I became ostracized and cut off from my community of friends. (Out of over two hundred, only eight continue to communicate with me.)

To be truly human is to reach out beyond our own needs and greeds. Anything less is the function of chaos. If the enterprise wants innovation it must be compelled to nurture and reward those who innovate, not drain them and return the empties for new models. When employee loyalty is rewarded with disloyal actions on the part of the employer, nobody wins. There IS no possibility of win-win when one party is abused by the other.

I have never spoken these thoughts or attitudes out loud but I honestly believe that if we expect to turn this country of ours away from the self-centered - self-righteous - corporate mind-set we need to take our country back from that corporate mind set. As long as what is legal trumps what is right, we are doomed to continue to slide down a very slippery slope into a very nasty place. As long as the needs of the shareholders and the image of executive management trump the lives of the employees who shed the blood, sweat, and tears to put the company into its current successful position, we are NOT going to succeed.

This isn't to suggest that ALL corporations are wrong - plenty of them still value the employees that made them great. Unfortunately, there are way too many enterprises that exist solely (or is that soul-lessly?) for the good of the company instead of the good of the community.

I'm an American - not Italian American; not Irish American; not Latin American; not any other "dash" American. My concern is that, in this disposable employee mentality, we just may be seeing a seriously deadly change in the value of American lives - one that could put us - the BIG US - quite literally out of business. I don't expect, nor am I asking for, anyone to follow me into any mythical promised land. What I do expect is for people to start voting with their feet and start speaking out when others begin destroying the foundational beliefs and culture that define our families, our companies, our countries and our world. If we don't get out of our apathetic little clouds, we're all going to discover that what has been done to destroy the trust of the individual employee has also been done to destroy all our hopes for a decent future for our children.

And, yes. I've decided to remain altruistic - look for it on my business card. The alternatives - the ones we're seeing now: economically, politically, and all-too-frequently right here in our homes - simply suck.

If You Can't Communicate, You Can't Thrive

When was the last time you took an effective communications course? Seminar? Read a 3.5 paragraph article on how to get your message through? Let me guess... That basic Public Speaking class you slept through in high school? 5? 10? 20 years ago?


Would you like to do better at what you do? In my experience the vast majority of problems people face - at home, at work, with that traffic cop who stopped you for speeding last week - hinge on your ability to send and receive a clear message.


Options? Keep in mind that, in today's seriously bazaar job market, this single facet of your capabilities could easily make or break your career. Invest some time, even a tiny amount, learning how to communicate more effectively. Then, (you KNEW I'd throw in a difficult caveat, didn't you?) actually practice USING what you learned.


I guarantee your life will change!

Customer Service is About Your Attitude Towards Other People

Not long ago, I purchased a "magnetic" bracelet from TGW.com. The product was touted as being of high quality and the price matched the hype. In less than three months the micro-welds on two of the bracelet links broke and I nearly lost the product. (On the advice of a jeweler I eventually used automotive "Lock Nut" to make shaky repairs. But why was I patching this product?)

I sent a very friendly note to TGW.com about what I considered either a defect or poor workmanship. I received no answer so I sent a note to the company that manufactured the bracelet. No answer.

Why is this germane to this blog series? Because neither company apparently gave a "diddly squat" about this particular consumer. It would have taken a single employee less than five minutes to (at the very least) apologize for my problems. Since I received no answer, I can only believe that once the money has changed hands these folks move on to the next buck, the next prospect - leaving a potentially valuable customer hanging.

I can understand how a company can become busy and even possibly miss out on some simple customer issues as this. I am not angry at these companies - They are only doing big company "things." However, they have permanently lost both a customer and a potential repeat buyer.

Is this your idea of quality customer care? How about your idea of simple courtesy? In business, or in life in general, there is no essential difference between these two critical human concepts. You either care about your ethics and attitude - and they apply to personal as well as business relationships - or you don't.

I personally spend countless hours doing my best to provide value to the people who I encounter. It doesn't matter whether they spend money with my company or not - my goal is to do my best to help them solve problems and live a better life. I'm not always successful - in fact, over the years I have had some sheer whoppers of "dumbicity" - but I DO push myself hard to perform. When I screw something up, I bend over backwards to correct the error and do my best not to repeat the mistake. I even go so far as to try and provide others with a recap & lessons learned so they can avoid the same problems - without having to take the lumps.

My company is nowhere near as wealthy or successful as the two mentioned above. Then again, it doesn't need to be. At least I wouldn't want it to be if this is the bottom line reflection of success. Years ago, I built up a pretty good freelance photography business. I did fine but an acquaintance built the same style business in about 1/4 the time and became extremely successful. His secret - the more negative attitude he threw at his customers, the more money they threw at him. Are we (the theoretical "we") doing something a bit backward here or is this a realistic business practice? Sometimes I honestly wonder... (I mean - seriously. This is one of the issues that literally keep me up at night.)

How do you treat others? How do your co-workers treat other businesses? Do you care? Do you take the time to look at where the customer or other individual is really coming from? Do you honestly to try and relate to their needs? Which attitude will help you become more successful? Do your personal ethics end where the corporate door begins? Which do you choose?

Only you can decide...

Want to Learn Something New?

Free Online Knowledge Briefing - April 22nd, 2010

For over ten years, I have commented that we lose way too many of our technology dollars to essentially empty IT spending. Industry studies have consistently backed up my perspectives, with some actually placing losses at more than $10 for every $1 spent. There a plenty of purported solutions to this waste. Unfortunately, very few of them are designed to produce positive ROI without serious additional spending.

On April 22nd, 2010 I'll deliver the first of an online Knowledge Briefing Series covering a wide range of methods any company can use to minimize risks while putting the brakes on wasteful IT spending - without negative impact on your budget or operations.

Tired of the unnecessarily high costs & risks of business technologies? This is your chance to identify the life cycle technology asset management issues that create those problems and to walk through the simple, common sense, and cost effective procedures that you can use to begin saving serious IT dollars.

Each registered participant receives a customized Session Workbook to use in documenting delivered content. We'll add to the Workbook with each new online session we deliver.

Let's conduct a quick cost-benefit analysis...

The Costs?

• It's free...
• The methods are proven,
  
• I'm not selling you anything and,
  
• It's only a single hour out of your day...
  

The Benefits?
Your company could easily begin converting those all-too-frequently negative technology investments to gaining $5 (or more) in value for every $1 you spend.

You have absolutely nothing to lose and everything to gain.

Series intro URL: Minimizing Technology Costs & Risks, April 22.

Session One: Minimizing Exposure to Punitive Software Non Compliance Audits

As an employee, are you disposable?

It's human nature to put a lot of effort into a new job (or other new experience) and then, after we're established, back off. We all tend to coast in certain areas of work & life. However, especially in this economy, those who coast are beginning to discover that their job security is at serious risk.

Are you coasting? If so, you are most likely at risk of becoming disposable. (As in the next to be unemployed.) That being the case, how can you go from disposable to indispensable? (And, before we go any further, keep in mind that merely being good at what you do does NOT prevent management from tossing you into the dumpster with everyone else.)

Want to up your odds of surviving the next purge? Try this. Make a list of all the skills and abilities you bring to your job. Once you complete that list, make a second column showing the number of those skills your employer has tapped into. Now, create a third list of the skills your employer - or future employer - genuinely values. The difference between what you know and what they value is your new target of opportunity (or maybe your target of survival).

Let me give a simple example. One of the absolute key elements of some jobs is the ability to dispassionately create and communicate a cost-benefit analysis (CBA). Unfortunately, few people can effectively create a CBA - and even fewer can communicate the resultant information to their business environment. Could you do this? If not, here's a very easy add-on to your personal-professional toolkit.

How about increasing your employment possibilities? Are there other simple skills (such as a CBA) that you could add to your toolkit that would help you become more valuable to your employer? Make a list and go after them. Also, understand that there may be no need to attend a costly course or training program. Many of these basic skills can be self-taught.

Wait... Self-taught? Isn't that something like taking control of your own professional growth? Or maybe taking the initiative? Could those two skills also be listed in among the needs of modern businesses?

Try this - It's easy! I just gave you three options for improving your employment capacities. How many more can you locate? Keep in mind that sometimes "merely" keeping a job isn't going to suffice. Sometimes you need to take control over your own options and (even though you "feel" secure) ensure that you are prepared for the worst.

Still coasting? On the other hand, you could just kick back in the recliner and wait for the next big surprise. Then you can stumble back onto the unemployment line with no advance preparation...

Nah! You're smarter than that. How can we help you improve? That's what we do.