In today’s society, it seems that everyone is joining different social media sites like Blogs, Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, etc. I am amazed at how a person or corporation’s reputation can be changed (for better or worse) in a single moment. If people like or dislike your service or product, they can post to their blog or Facebook/Twitter status for millions of others to read in an instant. It’s like the new version of the old party phone lines, where multiple houses shared the same phone line. Each house had a different ring to distinguish who should answer. However, people could listen in on different conversations. In that same way, reputations could be damaged when someone overheard another’s conversation and passed that information along.
I thought about how hard I work to maintain a good reputation and keep my clients happy. In the training industry (as in most industries), it is critical to do so. My next thought was that I needed to understand the new social media and it’s corresponding language/vocabulary even better than I currently did. I decided to do some research and found that I was going to need to learn a completely new language.
From the perspective of a business, my research on social media led me to the term “Web 2.0″. When I performed a web search on Web 2.0, I had hundreds of thousands of articles to choose from…yikes! From what I read, Web 2.0 is the way websites are designed to help consumers connect, including sites like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, blogs, wikis, etc. Many of the terms that were mentioned I had heard of before and had already incorporated into my vocabulary. However, a few of the words were completely new to me. Here are a couple of terms I found that were brand new to me. I am using the definitions from Wikipedia. It seemed appropriate to use that site since it is part of Web 2.0.
Mashup - a web page or application that combines data or functionality from two or more external sources to create a new service. An example is a real estate website that uses a mapping software.
Folksonomy - a system of classification derived from the practice and method of collaboratively creating and managing tags to annotate and categorize content. An example is tagging someone in a photo on Facebook.
Also in my research, I found a soon to be published book about building your reputation on your website and how to adapt it to a Web 2.0 standard. It is called “Building Web Reputation Systems,” published by O’Reilly. It looks like many other people are thinking about their internet presence and reputation, too. From my perspective, that is a good thing!
I had better get busy remembering all these new terms and continue learning more about the web frontier. I was thinking about trying to learn Spanish but I think I’ll need to focus on updating my internet language skills first!
Posts Tagged ‘training’
Trainer Puzzles
August 31st, 2009 - by AngelaSince I was a little kid, I have always enjoyed putting puzzles together. I liked getting the corner pieces and edges in place and looking back and forth at the picture of the complete puzzle to check my work. It was very rewarding to have to sort through all of the available pieces and find just the right one that fit in just the right place. As a family, I fondly remember time spent putting puzzles together and enjoying time to visit. It was also nice to work the puzzle with other people so that I had help when I got stuck.
In the training class I taught today, I enjoyed working on what I call a “trainer puzzle”. It reminded me of all the puzzles that I had put together over the years. In today’s class, we were designing PivotTables in Excel. One of the students wanted to streamline the process and customize her PivotTable. The constraints and conditions she had on her data created a situation that neither I nor any of the students had ever dealt with before.
Almost all of the students in class (they were all from the same department in the same company) had encountered the problem too. So, we took some time to brainstorm and try different options to see what might work. We had a good time puzzling through the different Excel features we knew and finally hit on a great solution. None of us could have figured it out by ourselves, but together we finished that trainer puzzle successfully.
Intentionally or unintentionally, puzzles help us develop our skills in whatever application or life challenge we dare to endeavor. We may complete a puzzle with more gray hair and with a few more wrinkles, but we have learned and improved ourselves.
In the training environment a puzzle can be a unique opportunity for the growth and development of employees. Puzzles foster the growth of a business by the opportunities that individuals within a firm take to develop their skills in that particular area. In turn those skilled individuals give that business a unique edge. The employees also develop skills that are beneficial for their career advancement.
Training is just one important area in which puzzles in business can be solved or brought to light to the advancement of everyone around.
Confessions of a Trainer
August 25th, 2009 - by AngelaWhen talking with my friends, family and clients, I am sometimes asked about what it is like to be a trainer. Often, they say that they are terrified of getting up to speak in front of people. Others wonder about the crazy questions I might have received from students. They want to know what it is “really” like to go to different businesses and train employees.
Just like in every other career field, there are myths and questions about what it is like to “really” do that job. (I often ask those same questions to lawyers and pilots. I think I specifically ask people in those two careers because when I was younger, I had wanted to be a lawyer or a pilot when I grew up.) When I am asked these questions, here are some things I tell people.
1) Yes, I do get nervous sometimes but not as much as when I first started years ago. There are even some nights before a really tough training class that I don’t sleep well. My husband can tell you exactly which classes those have been because, unfortunately, he didn’t sleep well either with all of my tossing and turning. With years of successful training classes under my belt you would think that I wouldn’t worry about being asked a question that I am unable to answer properly. I guess I just want to be prepared.
2) I still get an adrenaline rush when I am training. (If I am honest with myself, I think I may be addicted to it…kind of like a runners high.) I think it probably results from the nervousness in combination with the excitement of helping others. If I am doing a full-day training class, I start to feel the exhaustion about 1 hour after class is over. So, by the time I drive home, I’m completely exhausted. However, I’ve spent the day on high alert, trying to keep my brain one step ahead of what I am explaining, attempting to answer questions that can be very complex at points, and reading the students’ non-verbal signals to make sure everyone is satisfied and understand what we are going over in the class.
3) I actually do read all of the evaluations after the training. I obviously enjoy the compliments but also learn from the suggestions too. I try to adjust my training style or content for the next time.
4) I don’t do my job “just for the money”. I actually enjoy helping others and care that they learn the software. I think that most trainers would tell you the same thing.
I hope some of these “confessions of a trainer” help people understand what it is like to be a trainer. Or, if you are a trainer reading this blog, I bet you may be smiling and nodding right now.
Training and Parenting
July 15th, 2009 - by AngelaGreat Trainers are flexible and forgiving with others and themselves. They must repeat, repackage, and repeat again. Great trainers use relevant examples and lots of humor. They teach using visual, audio, and hands-on methods. They have to be patient with questions, quick on their feet, and balance between all skill levels in the classroom.
Here are my top 5 instructor traits…in no particular order, since one of the basics most trainers understand is that training is dynamic and fluid. These are just my five “biggies”, drawn from years of teaching and training experience.
1. Flexibility 2. Patience 3. Relevant Examples 4. Balance 5. Repetition
When explaining my “great trainers” principles to my husband one day, he compared me to Mr. Miyagi in the movie “Karate Kid” teaching Daniel Larusso. He said that in order to help our son learn new skills, I had unconsciously put into play many of the top 5 principles that I use in training.
Today, our six-month old son was splashing in the bathtub, giving both me and himself a bath. I was trying to balance holding a towel to prevent being completely soaked, while trying to keep him from drinking the soapy water. I repeatedly had to pull his face out of the water and tell him “no”. He may not know what “no” means yet, but with this repetition (one of the top 5 traits), I’m setting boundaries now to help him later and come to think of it, I was demonstrating another one of the trainer traits, patience!
I was trying not to laugh too hard when he came up with soap bubbles on his mouth and chin that looked like a Santa Claus beard. I handed him a rubber duck which calmed him down and together we made quaking sounds before finishing up his bath. While I don’t give out rubber ducks in my training classes, they really do work wonders with children!
Whether teaching simple interactions with a child, or applying the top instructor traits to students in my next PowerPoint class, the principles remain the same. 1. Flexibility 2. Patience 3. Relevant Examples 4. Balance 5. Repetition.
Looking back at my parenting style, I see that my husband is right. My training background is definitely manifesting itself in my mothering role. However, I think Mr. Miyagi would have had a tough time beating my impression of a quacking duck!
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