Learning design A quick overview of our work
PARTICIPACTION CONSULTING INC. 306 Aspen Place Alexandria, VA 22305 apianesi@participactioninc.com 202-262-3371
Training Workshops E-learning/Web Tutorials Training Materials Development Training of Trainers Web Conferencing The Best Trainers in the World‌ Facilitating IT Project Communication Facilitating Large Scale Change IT Systems Implementation Training Executive Retreats Communications Materials
Look for this symbol in each section to return home.
Training design <
Step 1 Define Client Business Need
Step 2 Assess Learning Needs/Resources
Step 3 Draft Workshop Proposal
Step 4 Incorporate Client’s Feedback
Step 5 Design Pilot Materials
Step 6 Deliver/Evaluate Workshop Case study1 Case study2 Training design <
TRAINING WORKSHOPS We can help you with the design and delivery of training Workshops. What do people do when they don’t remember how to accomplish something using Word? Do they read the manual or ask one of their colleagues nearby? Do they call the trainer that taught in class? With ParticipAction’s training workshops, the learning environment of the class replicates the situation where the skill is really used. Through the use of collaborative learning, we teach knowing that skills need to be analyzed, taught and evaluated as close as possible to the real environment where the skills “live”. We offer training programs in the following areas: facilitation skills, customer service, negotiation skills, management and supervisory skills; team productivity; communication. All workshop are customized based on client’s specific needs.
MANAGEMENT TRAINING WORKSHOPS FOR SERCO We have delivered several management training sessions for the Consulting Services Division of SERCO North America on subjects ranging from facilitation training to leadership styles. All workshops were based on solid ISD (Instructional System Design) to ensure planned results.
Training design <
FACILITATION TRAINING WORKSHOP WITH JEAN PALMER ParticipAction andJean Palmer Training for Success and Excellence co-hosted a very successful 3-day class on the main principles and practices of Group Facilitation Meeting. Feedback confirmed that participants loved the combined use of Group-tasks (collaborative learning), Hands-on practice (facilitation of practice meetings), and Learning conversations, review and reflections.
Training design <
Step 1 Identify Business Needs
Step 2 Analyze Budget/Delivery Options
Step 3 Design Solution
Step 4 Distribute/Deploy
Step 5 Support Use of New Application
Case study1 Case study2 Training design <
E-LEARNING/WEB TUTORIALS The use of the internet for communication and instructional purposes offers the great advantages of reach and ease of set up. Whether the work needs to be communicated in the form of a presentation, as a project web-site with forums and pictures, as a survey, or simply as a an online guide, the internet is a powerful tool for distributing instruction, information and resources remotely. In developing e-learning applications we like to ground the initiative to a clear project goal and to engage the client’s best thinking with ongoing feedback throughout the design process. Solid testing and communication activities to announce the online course are also critical.
COMPUTER-BASED TRAINING FOR VARIOUS CLIENTS Leveraging the power of Computer-based Training means creating powerful synergies with classroom training sessions by delivering content anywhere there is an internet connection. Our ability to use several elearning software systems tools paired with instructional design knowledge allow us to quickly and easily create engaging courses, demos, presentations, and assessments.
Training design <
ELECTRONIC FLASHCARDS, ON-LINE HELP FILES, WEB TUTORIALS for SIGMA-XI Sigma Xi was founded in 1886 and has nearly 65,000 members in over 100 countries around the world. When a new association software was implemented, more than 40 users relied on our online help and web tutorials to get up to speed on the new system. The new system today manages virtually every aspect of Sigma-Xi work.
Training design <
Step 1
Define Purpose and Content
Step 2
Analyze Participant/Stakeholder’s Needs
Step 3
Design Instructional Activities
Step 4
Develop Materials
Step 5
Coordinate Training Event
Step 6
Deliver Training
Step 7
Evaluate Learning
Case study Training design <
TRAINING MATERIALS DEVELOPMENT Our learning design is collaborative, creative and minimalistic. It focuses on the application out of the class of what is learned in class. The approach is people-friendly and, as such,each step of the design deals with the most common fears, anxieties people face when learning something new. Our collaborative learning design is: - Action-oriented and hands-on to prevent thoughts like, "I forgot what she said!" - Customized to the audience context and tasks to prevent thoughts like, "Maybe this class is not for my level!” - Relevant for the user to prevent thoughts like, "Will I ever use this?” Our curricula are implemented collaboratively to prevent thoughts like, "I don’t know whom to ask if I don’t know!” and conceived creatively to prevent thoughts like “When can I get out of here?”
CRM 2.0 Training
Building a Better Connection!
Jan.24 - Feb.8, 2005 PBGC Training Institute, Washington, DC CRM 2.0 March 2005
TRAINING MATERIALS FOR ORACLE CRM RELEASES AT PBGC The materials developed for six new system releases of Oracle CRM â&#x20AC;&#x201C; a $2 million software implementation - impacted more than 800 endusers of the Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation (PBGC). The implementations involved a 100-person call center, 8 federal divisions/offices and 11 field benefits offices across the US.
Training design <
Step 1 Define Client Business Need
Step 2 Assess Learning Needs/Resources
Step 3 Draft Workshop Proposal
Step 4 Incorporate Client’s Feedback
Step 5 Design Pilot Materials
Step 6 Deliver/Evaluate Workshop Case study Training design <
TRAINING OF TRAINERS We can help you with the design and delivery of train-thetrainer Workshops. ’s train-the-trainer workshops delivers superb instruction that build capacity in organizations, and support the action of the newly trained with follow up activities and support. Through the use of collaborative learning, we teach knowing that skills need to be analyzed, taught and evaluated as close as possible to the real environment where the skills “live”. We offer train-the-trainer programs in the following areas: facilitation skills, customer service, negotiation skills, management and supervisory skills; team productivity; communication. All workshop are customized based on client’s specific needs and include the construction of a training portal for your organization’s new training ‘cadre’.
TRAIN-THE-TRAINER STRATEGY for YMCA of GREATER OMAHA We met for three days with the YMCA trainers supported by two instructional designers and a typist. By the end of day three the participants had designed their own custom-made learning activities ready to be used across all YMCA branches for their classes. This Materials Development Workshop was a cheaper/more effective alternative to expensive custom training materials development. Furthermore our innovative approach had buy-in built into the
Training design <
process!
Step 1 Announce Initiative
Step 2 Prepare Materials for Session
Step 3 Design Email invitation
Step 4 Communicate Link or Web Site
Step 5 Implement
Case study
Training design <
WEB CONFERENCING Through the use of WebEx Training Center™ we have delivered communication and training to employees, customers, and partners anywhere there is an internet connection and a phone. Our experience with this technology engages learners in a rich online classroom, capturing their attention with live, interactive training in a virtual classroom where we make full use of testing, breakout sessions, and hands-on lab access. Web Conferencing allows to provide training to a vast user base for a fraction of the cost of comparable similar initiatives. Leveraging the power of this tool delivers personalized attention without the cost and delay of travel - and keep them current during a variety of corporate initiatives. With training budgets lowered and complexity increasing, WEBEX can be a powerful way to do much more with less: support as many people’s learning process as possible while limiting their time away from the office.
WEBEX SESSIONS FOR VARIOUS CLIENTS We have integrated Web conferencing as part of the larger instructional strategy for various clients. By using experiential activities, music and inquiry teaching skills we have transferred into the WEBEX virtual classroom environment the active engagement of classroom sessions. More importantly, we have avoided the prevalent “lecture mode” of many of today’s Web-inars that turns so many people against this new technology.”
Training design <
Training design <
Step 1 Collect Client Information
Step 2 Define Business Case
Step 3 Analyze Context/Users
Step 4 Propose Meeting/Schedule
Step 5 Design Meeting Materials
Step 6 Conduct Meeting Case study Training design <
FACILITATING IT PROJECTS COMMUNICATION (SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS / DESIGN SESSIONS FOR SOFTWARE PROJECTS)
In a complex software integration project the combined changes to people’s skills, business process re-design and technology can be hard to tame. Meetings can help in the critical and complex phases of design and requirements with the skills of meeting facilitation. A professionally facilitated Design or Requirement Workshop is a proven method for getting the right design feedback or requirements, fast, while building a positive and healthy project community. Through the skillful use of the project’s most precious resources - the community of the users, the developers and the stakeholders - these meetings allow teams to manage complexity leveraging information and solving problems from multiple perspectives.
Meeting Objective: The purpose of this meeting is: To get the input of trainees supervisors before the training design To make training decisions about class participants in each training session To define a schedule for budgeted classroom sessions
Meeting Location: Client’s Office Meeting Date: 60 days before training Deliverable: Tentative classroom training schedule Attendees: Project team, directors, supervisors of all trainees TASK
DURA TION
EXPECTED OUTCOME
1.Introductions: Warm-up and Review. What is the Members Only Software Training?
10 min.
Group readiness
1.Training needs definition. What skills will these individuals need to have to perform their job?
55 min.
Determine who needs to learn what skills
1.Session assignments adjustments. What needs to be changed?
15 min.
Decision on miscellaneous issues of identified training sessions and participants
1.Tentative training schedule. What dates are we planning to deliver these skills to this group of trainees ?
15 min.
Tentative Training Schedule
1.Conclusions: meeting review and evaluation.
15 min.
Feedback for quality and continuous improvement
MEETING MATERIALS FOR IT PROJECTS AT MEMBERS ONLY SOFTWARE In absence of a full scale testing stage, we used innovative meeting design for creative testing sessions to elicit everyone’s best input and involve the user’s community. The process tested the system quality while integrating it within the organization’s business process.
Training design <
Step 1 Define Change Scope with Stakeholders
Step 2
Assess Organizational Climate
Step 3
Define Objective/Stategy/Plans
Step 4
Design/Develop Drive for Change
Step 5
Focus on Knowledge/Skills/Attitudes
Step 6 Communicate Support Change Roll-out
Step 7
Communicate/Assess Lessons Learned Case study Training design <
FACILITATING LARGE SCALE CHANGE When ParticipAction supports organization change we work at designing conversations that reveal new beginnings through cultural engineering. The process involves discovery, imagination and risk. We use a range of tools and techniques that may range from individual interviews, writing and conducting surveys, or bringing client staff together for focus groups or a retreat. Approaches may address process modeling, systems thinking or action learning interventions. We might employ Open Space Technology, Conversation Café’ or another state-of-the-art approach to challenge and engage the “system”. During the process, we start defining the change scope with the stakeholders, assess organizational climate and define objectives and goals in specific terms. Results are clear, manageable and selfsustaining.
Meeting Objective: The purpose of this meeting is: To get the input of trainees’ supervisors before the training design To make training decisions about class participants in each training session To define a schedule for budgeted classroom sessions
Meeting Location: Client’s Office Meeting Date: 60 days before training Deliverable: Tentative classroom training schedule Attendees: Project team, directors, supervisors of all trainees TASK
DURA TION
EXPECTED OUTCOME
1.Introductions: Warm-up and Review. What is the Members Only Software Training?
10 min.
Group readiness
1.Training needs definition. What skills will these individuals need to have to perform their job?
55 min.
Determine who needs to learn what skills
1.Session assignments adjustments. What needs to be changed?
15 min.
Decision on miscellaneous issues of identified training sessions and participants
1.Tentative training schedule. What dates are we planning to deliver these skills to this group of trainees ?
15 min.
Tentative Training Schedule
1.Conclusions: meeting review and evaluation.
15 min.
Feedback for quality and continuous improvement
“WORLD CAFÉ” MEETINGS FOR KEANE IMPLEMENTATION With the background of music and an ambiance resembling more one of a café’- tablecloth and coffee on the tables - groups were asked to tackle important system issues for a major new internal policy implemented as a result of a new ERP system. These conversation café’s-style sessions helped in the complex task where traditional top-down processes had failed.
Training design <
Step 1
Early Involvement in Systems Design
Step 2 Content Outline/Assessment of impact on Internal Business Processes
Step 3 Users’ Needs Analysis Focus groups
Step 4 Training Strategy Design/Development
Step 5 Set Up System/Data for Training Session
Step 6 Delivery of Training Sessions
Case study Training design <
SYSTEM IMPLEMENTATION TRAINING When implementing a new system, the focus is usually on the technology. However, unless organizations also provide their people with the skills and knowledge they need to use the new system, large technology investments can result in low productivity, frequent errors, and poor usability. What if you anticipate not just a new technology, but a new way to work? What happen is you plan the integration of the technology with the internal business process and the delivery of proper skills to staff? At ParticipAction, we help our clients look at the whole picture: people, processes, and technology. We design and deliver training and support tools that help end users understand how to do their jobs with the new system to ensure your implementation success. Our solutions are designed to minimize errors, improve productivity through the full use of al new software features and minimize support time, often for geographically dispersed audiences.
TRAINING STRATEGY FOR ORACLE CRM 2.0 IMPLEMENTATION AT PBGC The Training best practices we introduced at the Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation were adopted by the federal agency. Our CRM 2.0 training plan made such an impression that the agency included it as a template for training initiatives in their Systems Life Cycle Methodology (SLCM), the standards that federal and contractors working at PBGC have to follow when planning/executing training for new systems.
Training design <
Step 1 Define Goal and Objectives
Step 2
Define Strategy/Plans
Step 3
Outline Proposed Agenda
Step 4
Support Organizing Committee
Step 5
Finalize Logistics
Case study Training design <
EXECUTIVE RETREATS/STRATEGIC PLANNING ParticipAction can help design and facilitate off-site meetings in which a team reflects on how it is working, the challenges ahead, and how best to move forward. Conversation as the medium of organizational intelligence sometimes does not produce movement. People continue to see things differently, the discussion becomes repetitive, or seeming agreements are not acted upon. We help important conversations go beyond where they otherwise bog down. Well functioning leadership teams require dialogue competence to keep conversation moving and to improve insight. We help teams develop this competence in customized sessions using powerful experiential approaches such as Collaborative Inquiry or Graphic Facilitation.
â&#x20AC;&#x153;LESSONS LEARNEDâ&#x20AC;? RETREAT WITH VARIOUS CLIENTS the reflective conversations and participative experiential activities of a multi-day retreat are designed to have participants learn from past experience. These events normally lead to breakthroughs thinking on business issues while building cohesive teams. A few results we helped bring about with various clients include a new internal policy on inter-team communication, an action plan for the new fiscal year or a strategy document drafted collaboratively.
Training design <
Step 1
Define Purpose and Content
Step 2
Analyze Target Audience
Step 3
Brainstorm Ideas
Step 4
Design Media Mix
Step 5
Design/Develop Materials
Step 6
Broadcast
Step 7
Evaluate Impact
Case study1 Case study2 Training design <
COMMUNICATIONS MATERIALS A good way to make sure people are on the same page when working on a multi-party project (with stakeholders, developers, business representatives, remote offices, etc.) is to develop communications material that can be easily shared across teams. This work, often overlooked, can help document and explain the work ahead and provide a perspective on the entire project with easy to understand materials like: maps, white papers, press releases, promotional vouchers, course descriptions, photo albums of team accomplishments. The objective is to make the complexity of the work needed either for a successful system rollout or for a major organizational initiative tangible and easy to understand .
COMMUNICATIONS MATERIALS for VARIOUS CLIENTS The communications materials we developed for various clients has helped them communicate technical and non-technical information in a format that is clear and easy to understand. Our finished product includes both text, graphics, and activities to reach the target audience speaking their language to create understanding and inspire action.
Training design <
FORUMS/YAHOO GROUPS/ ON-LINE SURVEYS FOR THE WASHINGTON COMMITEE OF ITALIANS ABROAD: Our work with the DC Representation of Italian nationals in the Washington area (COMITES) resulted in the creation of web pages, internal email, surveys, chat rooms, bulletin boards and an on-line forum. With the leadership of the Italian Embassy in DC we were able to improve communication of critical events with more than 3,000 people.
Training design <