All this socializing though has me concerned for co-workers and friends who do not closely guard their social messaging and of course we have all heard the sad- but funny stories about employees getting fired for tweeting about their boss or the self induced publicity about social indiscretions.

In the social media “work-life balance” is often a scale that is too often tipped in the wrong direction, especially if what you are saying can have impact on the “work” side of balance. Without doubt in the world where everything and anything is searchable, you have to be cogncent of what you publish to your social media pages.

So I thought I would throw out a few handy tips for you.

Resist the Rant
So you had a bad day with your boss or feel that a co-worker isn’t pulling their weight or maybe you feel very passionate about a political or social issue. Understand that once you hit the “share” or “upload” button it is broadcast to the world and in many cases can be found by your employer, or in the case of certain political figures, your constituents. I make it a policy to not disclose any information about my employer, my family, or my friends that could be deemed as negative. Each post I ask myself, “Would I share this with co-workers?”

Build Your Social Reputation
Dressing someone down on-line is not only un-classy, but sends the message to others that you are not a person to cross in the on-line world. The same goes for pictures of the party where you are seen in several up-loaded pictures with a beer bong kissing your neighbors dog on the rear.

Social media gives you the opportunity to broadcast a positive image of yourself. We live in a world that is often minimized to emails and conference calls. Think of social media tools as a image or brand management tool for yourself. For the first time in history you now have the power to display your skills, interest, hobbies, work style, etc. Through proper use of these tools you are more of person and not just a voice on a call or name in an email.

Add Value
Okay – guilty as charged. Yes I have some tweets and post that add value, but I am also known for posting pictures of a good cup of coffee, information about my dog running down a rabbit in the snow, or a trip to an abandoned airport in my airplane. I use these more of a way to connect with my friends, followers, and clients who follow my activities on specific sites.

Each update whether its with friends or fans needs to have a purpose. It’s a portal to who you are.

Use Multiple Avenues for Multiple Messages
I use most of the tools that are out there from blogs to podcast to tweets and update sites. Specifically for friends I use Facebook. I am careful about who I “friend”. My basic rule is if it is someone I would grab a cup of coffee with, go hangout at a ball game, or have a common interest with…then we become friends.

I also use Linked In as a tool to update on what I am doing in the working world. Here I post up what I am doing (as long as it is not confidential) at work as far as projects, travel, etc. This is where I can share and coordinate with others in my profession or network with others who might use my services.

I am also a believer in the podcast. The two main podcast I have is Adventure IQ (www.adventureiq.com ) that speaks to my adventures and my adventure intelligence work and the Barnstorming Blarney (www.barnstormingblarney.com) that is my aviation journal.

Finally I use a combination of Twitter and Twitpic- mainly to up date while out and about. With both of these I can update my Facebook status or both my Facebook status and LinkedIn status. To update LinkedIn I simply use #in anywhere in the tweet and it uploads to LinkedIn.

Take a Breath and Think
Finally, before you send any post, update a status, tweet about a relationship, or post up a pic…breathe and think…

These are just a few of the great tools that are out there—use them to position yourself as well as keeping friends and colleges updated as to who you are as a person.

Whether you are building a stand-alone CBT or putting together an entire blended delivery package you need to understand a few basic principles about how 21st century adults learn. Most training media I’ve taken a look at the past year alone is pretty pathetic at best. I do allot of on-line training from both the perspective of developer as well as student. I am currently working on my private pilot certificate and yes I am doing the entire ground school on-line. In addition, I routinely develop distance delivery each week for both my employer and in my private practice. So from developer and student – let me throw out a few tidbits I’ve learned from my experience.

Build it in sprints.
I remember when I was completing my bachelor’s degree that we were told in several instructional design and training development courses the average adult has a 20-minute attention span. For years this has been the guideline for building presentations. Unfortunately even this guideline is not adhered to.

Adults attention to instruction is no where near this anymore- especially if you are going to push information to them through a “non-interactive” medium of training. Just look at This is where designers who use tools such as Camtasia or Articulate begin to make mistakes in delivering a message. Last week I endured a 75 minute presentation on memory products that was nothing more than PowerPoint slides and bad audio. From this learning marathon I was supposed to walk away with not only the knowledge of the product but a better understanding of how a customer might use it. It was probably 35 minutes too long. A better way to get the same message across would have been to make several short presentations and allow the learner to pick and choose which elements they wanted to learn, or if they needed all of them, the ability to watch them in shorter sprints. Take a clue from You Tube, who limits content to 10 minute chunks, which in some cases is already too long.

Mix it up
I use a mix of media in both my live and distance delivery workshops. Often I will build a CBT, short video, podcast sound bites, and other distance media to supplement my live presentations or as additional resources to CBT. I really don’t believe in the stand-alone CBT anymore. There are too many ways to meet a learners needs to pick just one tool. Recently I held a workshop on “Leading without Authority” for a team in California. Here I used a mixture of Audio/Paper book, Skillsoft CBT, teleconference, and video posted on-line. The course was a success and is now a standard delivery technique for me. I also use supplements like this in my live workshops where I incorporate video blogs in to presentations, have participants complete on-line simulations while in-class, or do a video conference between two sets of participants.

Its the message not the media

I get excited about technology. I love the outdoors. I am into twitter, podcast, facebook, brightkite, blogs, video, etc. I have taught classes online and been a guest instructor inside the Second-Life world. Not every technology is meant for every audience. This is an area I have to be very careful to not tread into. It is so easy for me to jump in and try a new media and not correctly analyze my audience.

A few months ago I set up Twitter accounts for our team and even built a whole training on how to use it. It was a complete failure. After six weeks of being the only guy who was tweeting market updates, sales training links, announcements for free cookies- I gave up. Although looking back, I may have failed with that audience, but I did gain a better appreciation for audience analysis and knowing the difference between what they say they want and what they will use.

Summary

So welcome to the 21st Century- remember- adults learn faster and they learn on the go. Make sure what you build has plenty of diversity, and use the right tool at the right time for the right audience

The Quick Reaction Team (QRT) is an “on-the-ground” option available to companies for mergers, start-ups, joint ventures, and acquisitions. They can conduct a wide variety of operations to aid in the transition of a newly acquired company, train and on-board new departments and teams, and initiate department specific operations in locations that have not established their own operations. QRTs provide decision makers with increased options for achieving a company’s strategic objectives.

To realize their full potential as strategic assets, QRTs should receive executive officer level oversight to ensure full integration into planning for operations and inter-business unit planning. Skillful integration with other Micron sites allows QRTs to be a force-multiplier in jump starting new operations.

Their unique capabilities will allow a company to establish operations using best practices from all company locations. These operations can be conducted in such a manner as to reduce lost operational ramp time. When called upon, the QRT can augment HR operations in a specified region, while on-boarding and training key staff from the local site.
Total team components should include members from Workforce Mobility, Travel, IS/HRIS, Employee Relations, Recruiting, Records, OE, Communication (HR COMM), Workforce Development/ Training and Development, Compensation, etc.

The A-Team is the heart of the QRT. A five person advisory team that are culturally trained and language qualified. Advisors will be cross trained into other positions (i.e. A Workforce Development Specialist at the expert level would be cross trained into Employee Relations at an intermediate level) This team functions as the tactical training/advisory team. Deploying teams are tailored in both size and capability to meet specific mission requirements.
The B-Team is a twelve person group that represents all of the HR trades as well as EHSS. This team is responsible for supporting the

A-Teams as they deploy to the host site. B-Team provides command, control, and communications, logistics, and administrative support to multiple A teams deployed in the field.

QRT operations differ from traditional HR operations in degree of risk, often unconventional mode of employment, independence from home site support, and dependence on detailed information and local/ host site assets. With their linguistic ability and cross-cultural sensitivities, QRTs will quickly establish an effective working rapport with host site team members, vendors, and when required, government officials.

This HR “on-the-ground” option allows companies to quickly complete the human element of mergers and acquisitions.

As organizational learning and development professionals we need to be walking the razor’s edge of new and innovative ways to deliver content. Unfortunately, we don’t always have the infrastructure to support our initiatives.

http://www.bersin.com/Blog/post/Informal-Learning-becomes-Formal.asp

I had a colleague of mine forward the above article, and I highly encourage you to take a look at it—Some very noteworthy material. But I wanted to take a moment and comment on a few of the items as I see it in many organizations I have worked with in the past.

“78% of corporate managers believe that “rapid rate of information change” is one of their top learning challenges (800+ HR and L&D managers surveyed in 2008).”

I agree with this point, but for many organizations, the greater challenge is getting the support infrastructure to execute rapidly. A lesson I learned when developing training during the dotcom explosion was that systems training had to be built and deployed in the fraction of time that traditional technical training was developed. This also meant that the delivery systems had to able to support a multiple of deployment methods.

The organizations I worked in that were successful and that could capitalize on ROI of a training project were those that were willing to break the mold. On several projects my team was responsible for reacting quickly to content changes.

The frustration often came when we did not have an IT infrastructure capable (willing) to support those changes. There needs to be more line of site between those who are responsible for developing training and information media and those who are in charge of IT support systems.

“80% of all corporate learning takes place through on-the-job interactions with peers, experts, and managers (estimated data collected from over 1,100 L&D managers late in 2008).”

Agree– but formal coaching and mentoring should be set up– with support materials such as guides, podcast, evaluation systems…otherwise it becomes both a maverick system and limited ability to track, duplicate, refine, and measure .

“Over 30% of all corporate training programs (ie. classroom or other formal programs) are not delivering any measurable value (data provided through the same survey).”

Strongly agree– we are stuck in measuring response of the learner (level 1) and butts in seats… when was the last time we negotiated a percentage of the ROI on a project or followed up on behavior/ performance changes with a manager- or even made the manager a partner/ stakeholder in the learning we are “delivering”?

“Nearly all Millenial employees (under the age of 25) expect to find an on-demand learning portal (similar to Google and YouTube) within their employer’s environment.”

Strongly agree– I can go to youtube and learn about Maslow Hierarchy of needs in prep for an exam, see how an outfitter tent is put together, or learn how memory is installed in a Macbook Pro…but I can’t get IT to support initiatives such as podcasting, video blogs, or other social media tools… In today’s instant media access culture, we need to meet learners where they are, deliver on time “burst” training, with 24×7 access, and use media sources that are cutting edge.

Most training organizations have not changed or reinvented themselves in the past 15 years– unless they were a private firm. In-house training is stuck in old delivery methods, outdated metrics, a system of “the learning universe revolves around us”, and technology that does not meet the learners need…and this is the fault of trainers and those who support the information technology infrastructure.

I want an IT department to do three things to support my client and me. First, stop asking “why” and start asking “how”. How do they help, how do they support, how do they adapt.

The second, be on the cutting edge of technology. I should not have to go to a client’s IT manager and explain Twitter, Podcasting, etc. I expect an IT manager to come to me with the newest innovations, and not just with the brand he or she is familiar with.

Finally, understand that where we are in the information age is not where we were five years ago, nor where we will be in five years. Twenty-five years ago if I was building a training manual, I had to have a type-setter, a paste-up artist, a graphics designer, etc. For the past 10-12 years now I have been able to develop my own manuals from my own desk top.

Another example, in 1999 I had to have a digital media company come in and help me script, film, edit, and distribute a short 8 minute film on customer service. Recently I did all this for a memory installation project for a consumer electronics company. I did all the work myself.

Learning professionals have many more tools now to execute and deliver on projects and IT has not kept pace of our methods and techniques.

Remember, if you are the early adopter, you are still in second place.

for more information about me- please visit my website at or my podcast on iTunes (Adventure IQ)

As the owner and producer of a few other blogs, podcast, webzines, social media gatherings, and other web friendly (and in some cases not so web friendly) ventures I have often clumped most of my passions into one location. Its kind of like having one book in a library, in fact a scrap book of all my collections of work, play, thoughts, ideas, accomplishments, and other tidbits that make sense or at least can be force-fed into whatever model I am working at that time.

So this is my first step towards diversification of several knowledge and information products. This is the pre-introduction of Experiential IQ.  One of my other blogs and podcast (Adventure IQ) has amongst its inventory, several pieces that deal with experiential training. So in an effort to trim down the information in Adventure IQ, I need a repository to hold and distribute topics specifically around training and organizational learning/development.

I realize that this means I have just doubled my workload when it comes to sharing information, but at the same time I think it will create a better experience for the end user.

If you have followed the Adventure IQ blog, podcast, or website for information on experiential training, I want to invite you here and subsequently to the website that will support that work. I realize that many of these waters will be muddied for a bit- especially as I try to workout the differences in the two. After all, AIQ was initially founded on the principles of connecting people in adventure and then transferring that back to the working world.

The next few weeks I plan to get this worked out as we prepare the new website. In the meantime, please visit our website (www.adventureiq.com) as well as our podcast on iTunes.

So stay tuned we will walk through this together!