Part 3: Take Back Your Time with eLearning for Gen X

If you are a Gen Xer you aren’t afraid to forge a new path. You are the generation who saw the workplace adopt the internet in full force, make flex time and work from home more common, and broke the model of working at one company for decades. You know that life is what you make of it and recognize the importance of being ready to seize opportunities. Together with technology, eLearning suits these values. It allows you to work in your own way and at your own pace, without anyone looking over your shoulder. It allows you to stay current, learn more, and focus on both personal and professional subjects that interest you. Whatever your learning style, there are resources to help you stay on the cutting edge of your field.

But even tech savvy Gen Xers find it hard to sort through the wealth of social media and online resources that are available. It isn’t always easy to prioritize everything you have to fit into a busy day. Professional and personal interests sometimes take a backburner to the sheer volume of the daily must-do list. eLearning isn’t yet another requirement landed on your desk, it’s a way to actively improve yourself and keep you competitive in your field. eLearning isn’t Ben Stein lecturing in front of a chalkboard, it’s a  response to the demand “here we are now, entertain us” that makes education relevant and fun.

It takes as little as 20 minutes a day to benefit from eLearning. Use a few shorter videos as punctuation marks at the end of larger tasks. We all take brief breaks throughout the day to stave off mental fatigue. Instead of stopping for coffee or a smoke, get up and stretch, and watch an eLearning video. You can also try starting your day with a few videos, as a way to get your mind ready to work. If you can arrive to the office just ten minutes earlier, you’ll have half your goal met before the day has even begun. If you typically eat lunch at your desk, that is another great opportunity to fit in a few minutes of quality time with education.

As easy as it may be to feel that it’s a lower priority than clients, kids, and deadlines, eLearning is one thing you can do each day to stay in control. Actively decide to make it a priority, and give yourself a little peace of mind. Follow a few of the tips we’ve outlined here and take back your time by clearing a space in your day to improve with eLearning. You’ll know that part of each day was dedicated to getting where you want to go!

Part 2: eLearning Savvy for Baby Boomers

If you are part of the Baby Boom generation, you’ve seen first hand just how rapidly the world is changing. Education and the workplace have seen some of the most drastic changes, thanks to technology allowing us access to information from anywhere in the world, at any time. There’s no denying that this fast paced environment has its perks. With just a few clicks of the mouse, you can find the resources you need to train for your job, interface with clients, and share documents. Training seminars no longer require you to leave the office, thanks to eLearning applications and video conferencing.

As amazing and helpful as a constant influx of information and technology can be, it can also be a little overwhelming. Simply put, new structures and ways of organizing time, information, and communication take some adjusting to. At times, it can even feel isolating to be continually connected, and yet have less face-to-face time than when the same team would work together at a company for years.

Fortunately, there are ways to make the adjustment from offline to online easier, and make the transition smoother. Identify a few employees at your company who are especially computer savvy who can answer questions and help coach around technology and the “e” aspect of eLearning.

Sometimes the best way to learn something new is just to try it. Spend time getting familiar with new websites, software, communication applications, and updated versions of your favorite programs. Find reliable resources that you can go to when questions arise. eLearning isn’t just a training curriculum set up by your company—you can learn a lot from online communities. www.Youtube.com has a lot of content beyond business, but is also a good place to look for video walkthroughs.

It might seem daunting to close the gap between using technology and truly understanding it. By taking little steps like those outlined here, you will get there. Technology and eLearning are simply great new ways for us to come together and gain new inspiration! By connecting with those around you, you too will be a part of a great new culture of learning!

Transforming the way we learn and access information, eLearning has opened the doors of education. No longer is learning confined to the classroom or limited to a certain schedule. eLearning has made it easier than ever to continue education beyond the traditional cap and gown graduation and has made life-long learning a possibility like never before. Almost any topic imaginable can be accessed anytime, anywhere with the click of a mouse.  This new learning environment provides everyone with the opportunity to sharpen skill sets, advance personal and business interests, stay current in their career field, and make new discoveries each day.

Even though eLearning has broken down many of the barriers around education, the playing field isn’t quite level yet. Your comfort level, or lack thereof, with technology and with self-directed, flexible education might be due to that wonderful thing called the generation gap. In order to maximize eLearning in the workplace and beyond, it’s important to understand that different generations have different needs. In the upcoming posts, we will look at the unique perspectives associated with the various generations and provide some practical advice for succeeding in an eLearning environment.

Written by Courtney Cochran

As a business owner, salesperson or customer-facing employee, you are in the position to build relationships with the people you come in contact with each day. It may, in fact, be part of what you love about your career. Any relationship needs nurturing and attention. Customer relationships are no exception. Customers with complaints want very specific solutions to their problems. They desire communication and have passion regarding their experience.

- “A complaint is brand loyalty in disguise.”

Like a disgruntled love that’s been ignored, the customer with a complaint needs to be reassured and wooed back into the relationship. Whether you love them or hate them, customer complaints are a vital part to your growth in sales. Learning to approach complaints without fear, rather with an attitude of service, is crucial to creating brand loyalty and a WOW experience for the customer. Rather than focusing on the negative, present your customer with an overwhelmingly positive experience. Keeping the following five points in mind will help you turn customer complaints into the most exciting opportunity for growth and loyalty.

1. See the Situation from the Customer’s Point of View

You can gain valuable insight from the views and opinions of the customer. The customer drives your business, for better or worse. Empathizing with the customer’s experience is key to understanding what you are doing well, and what you are not. Often times the customer will tell you what is wrong, if you just listen.

2. Evaluate Your Performance

When was the last time you evaluated your performance? If it’s been a while, it may be worth asking yourself what signals you may be unintentionally putting out. Maybe it’s the “I’m too busy right now” signal, or the “I just haven’t had time to follow-up” signal, or worse it could be the “I really don’t care if you’re a customer” signal. Make sure your signals are customer centered.  Put the customer first, and make the time to truly serve them and care about the experience you provide them with.

3. Improve Customer Satisfaction

Even if you are frequented by customer complaints, there are things you can do to improve customer satisfaction. Become a resource for the customer. Make yourself available. Be an expert at what you do by providing sound and balanced information. Provide them with the solutions they seek. This resourceful type of relationship is exactly what the customer desires.

4. Create Long-Term Loyalty

You can combat the negative effect of customer complaints by focusing on creating long-term customer relationships. Creating loyalty is more than just handing the customer a loyalty card or telling them you are here for them 24/7. It’s about being consistent at all times. It’s about exceeding customer expectations and providing them with a service experience they can’t, and don’t want to, live without. It’s about providing an experience that simply can’t be provided by any competitor.

5. Identify Weak Points in Your Processes

This is your calling card for better results and growth increase. Even if your customer complaints are few, there is always room for improvement, and you should strive to improve the customer experience. You don’t have to make dramatic changes or radical shifts in your approach. Try implementing something simple and go from there. It could be establishing a consistent, upbeat and friendly greeting. Whatever the case, it’s the little things that do make a big difference in the overall customer experience.

by Meghan O'Dea - copywriter/editor for Woople LLC. and PCWWE

Here in Wildwood, we’ve started having a morning meeting for the Production team, so we can start the day on the same page and share what we accomplished the day before.   It has been a great way to feel more like a team and start everyday with good communication.  When we begin by seeing how our individual projects dovetail together toward larger goals, it is easier to stay on track the rest of the day.

We aren’t the only ones who think a morning meeting can be incredibly beneficial.  For decades, experts have touted the morning meeting as a solution to any number of inefficiencies or communication failures that run the workplace amuck.  In 1919, the Spectator (a popular British magazine still in print after its first run in 1828) included an article on the importance of morning meetings, which explained, “A Monday morning meeting is a good thing—to be regularly held at an hour not later than nine o’clock.  If this meeting does nothing else, it will get the solicitor, or agent on the job, at a definite hour in the morning.”

More recently, business experts continue to hold enthusiasm for morning meetings and for conducting studies to understand how they can be even more beneficial to managers and employees.  The Harvard Business School wrote, in 2006, that meetings should include the opportunity for everyone in attendance to “put anything on the table for discussion” that would then see an implementation plan developed.  The idea is that, in addition to generating valuable ideas, the opportunity to contribute would make meeting attendance a privilege and give employees a sense of ownership over the meeting process.   The HBS also noted that excuses to not have meetings often stem from the idea that employees and managers are “too busy” which is often less true than a matter of “being ‘too busy’ is a way of feeling valuable.”  Morning meetings can replace a false estimation of value with a real one defined by contribution.

Researchers for Monster.com, in an excellent position to observe workplace trends, have also noted that after ScanDigital, a major photo archival company, implemented morning meetings, employees were able to “connect the dots between their own jobs and the company’s performance.”  As a result, the company began to “see better results across the board…” as well as gain “better insight into what…employees needed to serve customers better and make work processes more efficient.”

With so many benefits to spending a little time together each day as a team, we are glad we’ve started utilizing morning meetings here in Wildwood and are already reaping the benefits.  If you would like to boost your company efficiency and strengthen your team, why not try implementing this simple process at your office? 

“Civic Duties of the Life Insurance Agent.” The Spectator vol. 102-103, (1919): 166-167. Google Books digitization

“The Morning Meeting: Best Practice Communication for Executive Teams.” Harvard Management Communication Letter vol. 3, no. 2 (Spring 2006) http://hbswk.hbs.edu/archive/5388.html

Fenn, Donna. “Make Hourly Workers Your Best Secret Weapon.” Monster.com http://hiring.monster.com/hr/hr-best-practices/workforce-management/hr-management-skills/increasing-hourly-worker-performance.aspx

by Mike Burdette

For an organization to grow consistently, the organization must become a learning organization.  In order for an organization to become a learning organization, there must be a teacher.  Here are ten qualities of a GREAT teacher.

Quality 1.  A great teacher must have a real desire to teach.  I remember, as I’m sure you do, all of the classes that you took where you could tell that the teacher didn’t want to be there.  They wished they were doing something else, and it showed when they taught.  If you are to be a great teacher, you have got to want to teach and truly see each student grow.

Quality 2.  A great teacher must bring passion to the teaching session.  As a teacher you can’t fake it till you make it.  The word passion comes from the combination of “pass it on."  Great teachers pass on their enthusiasm, excitement, energy and passion for learning.  You can’t draw water from an empty well.  If you don’t have it, you can’t give it.

Quality 3.  A great teacher is a master story teller.  In order to drive home a point, you gave to be able to paint a picture with stories that students can relate to and understand.  The stories must be engaging and exciting, as well as keep an audience on the edge of their seats.  My father was a great story teller, and many of my early life lessons were learned through his stories.

Quality 4.  A great teacher teaches with the end in mind.  When designing an education class, you have to work with what you would like students to walk away with.  Whenever I am asked to teach or speak, I ask the same question, “What would you like your people to walk away with?"  After I get that information, I then build the class.

Quality 5.  A great teacher varies their methods of delivery.  In order for the class not to become boring or predictable, you must mix it up and keep them guessing.  If you do this, your students will look forward to the next time you teach.

Quality 6.  A great teacher checks their own ego at the door.  In order to earn the respect of your students, you must make the class about them, and not you.  I have been to many seminars where the teacher constantly talks about themselves over and over, and you almost feel like their only purpose is to feed their own self-serving ego.  Remember, the main thing is to teach and educate in order for the student to feel better…not you.

Quality 7.  Great teachers continually expand their own knowledge.  If you, as a great teacher, expand your knowledge, your students can expand theirs.  What does your personal education library look like?  Do you even have one?

Quality 8.  A great teacher understands that people learn at a different pace.  You can’t leave anyone behind.  People learn at different levels.  If you’re only teaching one way, you’re going to miss some students, and your effectiveness will be limited.  You might have to devote individual time to some students.

Quality 9.  A great teacher is always prepared.  The worst thing you can do is try to conduct an educational class and not be prepared.  Your students will see it.  You won’t be smooth and will end up wasting something that no one can get back…TIME.

Quality 10.  A great teacher knows that the eye is the greatest teacher of all.  Your walk has to match your talk.  You can’t send mixed messages to your students.  When you do this, you will lose their respect and ultimately their attention.

As a teacher you need to stretch your people, develop them and impact their lives. The joy and value of teaching is immeasurable.  Whenever greatness exists in an event or a person, you can take it to the bank that a great teacher must have played a huge role.  Go out and become great!

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Updated on Tuesday, April 19, 2011 at 10:16 AM EST.