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Hope Knowles is a seasoned HR L&D professional with more than two decades of experience. As the director of L&D for Priority Technology Holdings, she drives organizational growth through innovative strategies and fosters a culture of continuous learning. Knowles spearheads initiatives that enhance employee growth, engagement, and retention, collaborating with stakeholders to align learning programs with business objectives and diverse learner needs. She has presented at conferences such as TechLearn and TICE and holds certifications including Certified Professional in Training Management (CPTM).

Hope Knowles

October 2024 - TD Magazine

Understand the fundamental objectives of the endeavor.

7 Steps to Creating a Succession Plan

Every industry, every company, and every project has its own vocabulary. As humans, we make judgments based on the words people choose. We decide to trust the plumber because he knows the name of the “thing-a-ma-jig” that needs to be replaced. When we say that someone sounds like she knows what she’s talking about (or not), we’re reacting to her ability to use her vocabulary—both the depth and the breadth.Academics who are experts at linguistics use a concept called a “discourse community.” Fundamentally, a discourse community is a group of people who have developed ways of communicating with each other to get things done. The older members of the community need to teach the language to the newer members of the community. Doesn’t this description sound like a typical workplace?Neuroscience research via brain scans has discovered that different areas of the brain light up when one is learning new words. There are approximately 1,000,000 words in the English language. With the “kernel lexicon” of 2,400 words, it is possible for one to understand approximately 75 percent of what is read. The average vocabulary ranges from 10,000 to 25,000 words, depending upon experience and education.Adults learn language differently from children. Children learn language by listening, listening, listening—and then they start speaking. Then they are taught their letters so they can learn to read and write. Adults, however, are more likely to listen and read, then write, and then speak. Only when he is comfortable with a word or phrase and its appropriate usage and context will an adult start using his new words in speech. Passive vocabulary—the words we know for reading and listening—is significantly larger than the active vocabulary used for speaking and writing.The principles associated with learning English tell us that people need multiple repetitions over time via different neural pathways and in different contexts to learn words and phrases and the concepts that they represent. Let’s dissect this sentence and identify the steps.Seven to 20 repetitionsMultiple contextsReading, speaking, writing, and listening (active plus passive input)Tense, construction, and usage (variations of meaning and significance)This is how people pick up words on their own over time. It sounds logical. However, there is a very important snag in all this lace.According to university-sponsored research, when we don’t know a word, we either make up a meaning or ignore the word. Academics knowingly talk about how to infer meaning based on context, word formation, and more. But research is showing us something else: In the real world, the brain might just fill in a meaning. Maybe it will figure out a correct meaning, but maybe not.It’s the second action, however, that is more disconcerting—when the word is simply ignored. It’s not that the person wasn’t paying attention; rather, the brain simply glided over the word in the written material. In a conversation, confident people ask for meaning. “Huh?” has been identified as a universal word indicating, “I just missed what you said.” But there is no way for someone to immediately convey that she missed the meaning of a written word. And when it comes to the special language of your company, if there’s no glossary, then the best hope is that a knowledgeable co-worker happens to be nearby.Stay tuned next week for Part Two of this series, The Language of the Workplace.

How Do We Learn New Words in the Workplace?

The Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion (ODPHP) within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has a long history of creating guidelines and policies to protect and enhance the health and wellness of the American public. With a wide reach, the office has produced initiatives as important as the Dietary Guidelines for Americans and the Adverse Drug Event National Action Plan, playing a central role in helping to keep America healthy. To ensure health professionals are able to meet the goals ODPHP has helped create, one of ODPHP’s many initiatives is to provide free interactive training to health professionals. The training of health professionals has required our office to think about the pedagogy required to capture the attention of a very busy target audience: physicians, nurses, pharmacists, public health professionals, and so forth. How can we capture the attention of our audience for long enough to share our message and change behavior? Enter SimulationsMalcolm Knowles, renowned adult educator and champion of andragogy, said that adults are practical, goal-oriented and bring life experiences and knowledge to learning. These principles that Knowles identified are reflected in the trainings we create. To meet the needs of adult learners our office provides learning in an interactive, simulation-based learning format. Simulation-based learning enables the user to apply goal-oriented skills in a practical setting by asking the user to assume the identity of another and walk in someone else’s shoes. In our simulations, the user can take on the role of many different characters, including Rhonda Clark, a busy nurse taking on a new role as a pain management professional at her practice, or Kelly McTavish, whose father was just admitted to the hospital and is practicing empowered caregiving. In our lessons, the user is able to use prior life experiences in their learning. In simulation-based learning, the user is asked, “What would you do?” More often than not, this decision will be influenced by the user’s previous experiences. Users are able to make choices in the simulation and learn from the consequences of those actions in a virtual world. The growing complexities of patient-centered care require health professionals to effectively communicate with patients, caregivers and the care team. Communication skills are not inherent, but can be improved through practice and training. Our lessons provide the user with simulation-based learning to practice those communication skills in a safe space.One of our most popular and highly used training offerings, “Partnering to Heal,” highlights effective communication strategies through simulation-based learning to create a "culture of safety" in healthcare institutions to keep patients from getting sicker. The training asks users to assume the identity of five main characters and make decisions about preventing Health Care-Associated Infections. In one scenario, the user assumes the identity of Dena, an overwhelmed nurse. The user, as Dena, has experienced Dena’s work and home life. Her husband just lost his job and Dena is now supporting him and their newborn daughter by picking up extra shifts at the hospital. When Dena is faced with the decision to join a new team at the hospital dedicated to infection prevention, the user must choose. If Dena chooses to join the team, the user is shown this prompt:Learning MoreThe ODPHP training library can be found at health.gov/learn. To stay up-to-date on all trainings and resources offered by the Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, please sign up at ODPHP Learning. What’s more, ODPHP is looking forward to learning from colleagues at Government Workforce: Learning Innovations, as well as sharing our approach to training health professionals during the “Problem Solving in Three Dimensions: Learning for the Future session.”

Simulation Based Learning Enhances Healthcare Professional Education

I recently wrote a blog post on the 10 Ways to Take Your Corporate University Out of Snoozeville. From the responses I received, I believe I hit a hot button—especially with the section on 10 items that every L&D person should know how to do. Trust me, knowing these things will enhance your classroom: bloguse Dropbox or Evernotedevelop and sustain a PLNcurate and share informationsend large filesuse a hashtagmanage your online brandknow the variety of different delivery mechanismstrouble shoot technologysubscribe to and manage Slideshare, YouTube, or other dynamic digital media. For many of you, this list is a no brainer. Yet, for others, this may be a scary list—and you may be wondering why these items are important to include in your revised tool box.In this two-part blog post, I'm going to offer my point of view as to why these items are critical to enhancing your "trainer toolbox."  #1. BlogBlogging, in my opinion, is the most important item on this list. There are so many things that a blog can do for you and your learning initiatives. It is important to break down blogging into two parts: blogging for expression, and blogging as a learning tool.   Blogging for expression allows you to share your thoughts and ideas; it's an extension of yourself. I find blogging to be empowering—like I'm giving myself permission to express my point of view and share my experiences. More important, it's a great way for your learners to get to know about you and feel connected to the learning. Through blog posts, your learners can start to understand your expectations and get a glimpse of your thought process. Blogging as a learning tool uses posts to provide pre-work or information about a specific learning session. Some examples include presenting ice breaker activities, linking to or embedding videos, or posting journal entries so leaders to review how the class is progressing. Learners can comment on the topic, enabling you to see whether they understand pivotal concepts. The possibilities are endless.The #LearnCamp @Learn\_camp is a great example of how to conduct a course through blogging. And here is a nice summary about the importance of blogs from Mike Taylors’ Learn Camp including how to set up a free blog on both Wordpress and Blogger.  #2. Use Dropbox or EvernoteA common question I often hear is how to improve the collaboration process within teams. Well, in my opinion Dropbox and Evernote are the solutions to your collaboration issues. Indeed, I do not know how I got along without either of these collaboration tools. Evernote is an add-on to my brain. You can store anything at any time, and Evernote works across devices and is OS agnostic. You simply set up notebooks for a variety of different topics. For example, I have a notebook specifically for my blogs and another one for notes for Learning Rebels. When I was in the corporate world, I had a notebook for meeting notes and others for on-going projects.You can take meeting notes and send the Evernote link to all participating parties—so no more losing information on email. Download the desk top app, and you don't even have to be online to take notes. Once you are back online, it will automatically sync. Personally, I think it is the best collaboration tool currently on the market. If you want to know other awesome things Evernote can do, check it this post from lifehacker. Dropbox is the king of file storage and collaboration. We have all worked on those projects that have a business case, a supporting PPT deck, a budget spreadsheet, a project management spreadsheet, checklists, project updates, and so on. With Dropbox, you can store all those files in one place, where everyone involved in the project can easily access and update the files.#3. Develop and sustain a #PLNA PLN is your “Personal Learning Network.” I have spoken in depth about being a curious learner, and building and sustaining a PLN is key to keeping yourself informed and up-to-date on all things related to your niche. My network challenges me, presents me with new information to review, gives me links to courses and webinars to attend, and helps me to vent and share ideas.Yes, I am connected to most of my network online. If you're on twitter, find someone whose point of view you appreciate and reach out to her. Find out who they follow, and follow those people and interact with them.And a PLN is not just about gathering contacts, it's about sharing. I enjoy my conversations with these key people, but I also look forward to interactions with new voices—you never know what you may learn. If you want to learn more about the "how and why" of PLNs, check out David Kelly's blog: Why you need a #PLN. #4. Curate and share informationIn Show Your Work, author Jane Bozarth asks the key question: If what you are working on is not worth sharing, why are you working on it? Have you ever worked on a project only to find out that someone else just a few doors down was working on the very same project? Probably.Bottom line: sharing information is key to breaking down silos, and there are tools at your fingertips to help. For example, consider starting a blog detailing a current project. One post may describe how you are planning to gather data on XYZ, and when Sally Sue reads that post, she knows where some information already sits and can send it over to you. You've shown your work, and you’ve benefited. Curating information is a bit of a different animal; it focuses on gathering and organizing knowledge. For instance, in an art gallery, works are displayed in a way that is either logical or tells a story. Your process of curating information needs to be equally strategic—not just literal information dump with a search function. Google the phrase, "Ladder Safety Courses,” and you will find some 1,370,000 results. Do you really need to be 1,370,001? No. How about if you curated great information about ladder safety, put in that Ladder Safety blog you are going to write, and boom, you are DONE! Here is an excellent blog post on Putting Curation in Context by Mark Britz. #5. Send large filesI just want to scream when someone tells me they are headed down to my office with a USB drive to give me that file that is too big to email. UGH! Do them and yourself a favor and show them how to send large files. One option is to use Dropbox, of course. Some other cool tools for sending large files include:TransferBigFIles.com: you can upload and download files as large as 1 GB for up to five days; files can be password protected if security is a concern.WeTransfer.com: you can send files approximately 2GB (for free) by simply entering your email address and your recipients. I hope you see the theme here: all of these tools are linked together. Ultimately, it's about a new way of working. Better yet, it’s a new way to think about working: sharing, curating, and communicating.The next post will cover using a hashtag, managing your online brand, knowing the variety of different delivery mechanisms, troubleshooting technology, and subscribing to and managing dynamic digital media tools.Part 2 of this article is now available.

The New and Improved Trainer Toolbox: Part 1

Like many professionals, my January has been filled with making those special resolutions, but not of the sort that (often) involve diet and exercise. Goal-setting in our professional lives seems to resonate more deeply than dusting off the treadmill.The folks at Chat2Lrn held a Twitter chat about New Year’s resolutions for L&D earlier this month and the comments were very interesting. As you might expect, any of the resolutions involved learning new technologies and skills, but another standout resolution was sharing more knowledge. You can view the curated Tweets here.Meanwhile on the Yammer ISD Network, there are resolutions to write more, become stronger all-around ISD professionals, and interact more effectively with clients. One member is even working on a project to help veterans returning to the job market.It’s easy, and definitely good, to think of what we want for ourselves each time a new year turns. But what kinds of knowledge and opportunities can you share with your networks, colleagues, and communities outside L&D to make everyone a little better at what they do in 2014? I hope you’ll think about it and comment over on the blog.Juana LlorensCommunity of Practice ManagerLearning & Developmentjuana@astd.org@ASTDLearningDev

Share What You Know in the New Year

Almost by definition, training and development is about helping people acquire new knowledge and skills. Venturing into new areas is scary, with a real fear of failure. So, position those ventures as experiments instead of must-win crusades. When that happens, failure is a foreseeable outcome of the experiment and not a black mark on anyone’s record – especially if people have the permission and fortitude to call the failure fast, capture the learning, and move on.Drawing on learning from the Triangle Startup Factory’s Chris Heilvy in one of my recent articles on Forbes.com, Want to Fail Fast? Do These Three Things, the suggestions are 1) talk to customers, 2) test and 3) make early sales.Let’s apply those to training and development:Talk to CustomersGoing back to the old Total Quality SIPOC tool, all work is a process:Suppliers => Input => Process => Output => CustomersBeginning with the end in mind means beginning with the customers in mind. Don’t start by designing training and development programs. Start by talking to your internal and external customers to understand what problems they need solved. Then, armed with knowledge about their needs, you can design far better training and development programs, experiences and experiments faster.Run a Test that Validates Your ThinkingIf you’re creating a brand new training and development program, you’re guessing, experimenting – as you should. You know you’re going to make mistakes. Just make them fast and have a mechanism in place to get meaningful feedback quickly.This doesn’t mean you have to develop the whole program and then test it. Test one module. Test a prototype. Test the program with a small group. Run the experiment, hoping it will work so you can expand it, but open to it’s failing in which case you’ll shut it down and move on to the next experiment.Generate Sales Earlier Rather LaterOf course, ideas are important. They are the first step to any great innovation. But they are “not worth (anything) until someone pulls a dollar out of their pockets.” (Chris Heilvy’s words) Too many people wait until their program is perfect before trying to sell. Don’t wait. Sell what you’ve got and improve as you go. Get someone to invest money and or time in utilizing your program as a way to check that it’s got real value.Every article I write is an experiment. Some work. Some don’t. Some get read by a lot of people and generate comments, conversations and learning. Some fall on deaf ears. It’s all good. I learn from the failures and improve my writing skills. Others gain knowledge from the ones that work. As long as someone is increasing knowledge or skills, the experiments are worthwhile. Hope you learn from this particular experiment. If not, that’s okay. I will.

Managing Training and Development as Experiments in which Failure is an Option

Hours. That’s how long it takes for a frontline worker to decide if they’re in or out. One rough shift (and a slightly better offer), and they’re gone! At Axonify, we know that great onboarding makes all the difference. We’ve worked with millions of frontline associates—and we've asked them directly what matters most when starting a new role and what sets them up for success. The results are in: It all starts with the right onboarding.Onboarding boosts retention by 82 percent and productivity by more than 70 percent (BHG). Yet, only 12 percent of employees say their organization does onboarding well (Gallup). That’s a big problem on the frontline, where people often get hired and start the same day.Nearly 75 percent of organizations say high turnover is one of their biggest frontline challenges (ATD). If you bury new hires in “click next” e-learning or overload them with classroom sessions, you can’t be surprised when they leave—especially when those sessions aren’t built to stick. If they don’t feel confident doing the job or find it enjoyable, they leave.Fixing onboarding takes more than training videos. Frontline leaders need to rethink the purpose of onboarding—and how it sets the tone for the entire brand experience.The Onboarding TrapFrontline onboarding usually goes one of two ways.The new hire gets handed to a peer with training called “they’ll show you how we do things.” There is no structure or manager support—just hope. Then, we’re shocked when performance is shaky and confidence is low.The other version is total overload. We cram every detail into training to satisfy subject matter experts and check compliance boxes. Meanwhile, employees are just trying to remember people’s names and figure out where to buy non-slip shoes.They might pass the test, but most of what they learned is forgotten in a few days because it’s outside the flow of work, lacks consistent reinforcement, and misses the role-specific context that connects to the bigger picture.Shift to EverboardingOnboarding is just the starting point. Shift from front-loaded training to everboarding: continuous learning that’s built into every shift.Start with support. On day one, show new hires how to find answers using your knowledge base, digital assistant, and any other tool that gets them unstuck fast.Pre-assess. Fast-track experienced hires by validating what they already know. Focus training where it actually makes a difference.Embed microlearning. Reinforce critical skills with short, targeted practice during every shift—just a few minutes at a time.Equip managers. Push real-time insights to frontline managers so they can coach in the moment and enable personalized growth.Everboarding ensures support from day one—putting the right tools in your frontline’s hands so they feel confident and capable every shift.Repurposing the First Few DaysWith always-on support in place, we can stop treating the first few days like a firehose and start focusing on the experience.Yes, compliance still matters. Safety training must happen. But we all know new hires won’t retain every policy and process thrown at them on day one.One global retailer took a smarter route. They capped how much training a new sales associate can do on their first day. Instead, they spend most of this shift on the floor meeting the team, connecting with the manager, and getting a feel for the job. Training starts in earnest on day two and rolls out in focused chunks over the first few weeks.The result: reduced turnover, greater consistency, and stronger frontline performance.Retention Starts on Day OneHalf of hourly workers quit within the first 120 days (UKG). It’s not a training problem. It’s an employee experience problem.Everboarding shifts the focus from delivering content to building confidence. This approach fosters a continuous learning and support experience that meets frontline workers in the moments that matter—giving them the tools they need to succeed, exactly when they’re needed. 

Forget Onboarding! Drive Frontline Results With Everboarding

Blended learning is proving to be an effective development strategy. According to ATD Research, 75 percent of organizations are expanding their use of blended learning, and 87 percent of employees value the flexibility it provides.This ATD Research whitepaper explains that implementing a successful blended learning program takes a variety of skills. Furthermore, both internal and external organizational resources need to be balanced.How to do that successfully depends on the organizational context as well as how to motivate your teams. Motivate Your AudienceWhat motivates adults to learn? Clearly, there are different learning theories out there. Everyone has a unique mix of intrinsic and extrinsic motivational factors. These factors range from perceived reward and social or contextual influences to the quality and flexibility of available training.The UK’s innovation agency for social good, Nesta, details how to design a program to meet your audience’s readiness levels. For example, if you have a group in the precontemplation stage with no interest in learning, you can promote a change in cultural norms.Blended learning can be particularly useful for this type of audience because you can emphasize the “fun” aspect. Gaming experiences or book clubs for greater team bonding are some examples. As mentioned in our blog about why companies are moving toward blended learning, another powerful motivator is to integrate learning into the flow of work. The more people see relevance and the less it disrupts their work, the more they’ll appreciate the learning.Other ideas to motivate your teams to engage with learning:Self-driven blended learning – With multiple learning approaches, it’s easier to let learners lead so they feel empowered. Only then does true curiosity and learning blossom.Digital and leadership champions – Not everyone will have the same digital literacy so it’s important to provide the right guidance. Moreover, make sure you get buy-in and advocacy from your leaders.Career guidance and coaching interventions – Learning needs to be as beneficial for the organization as it is for the individual. With coaches, individuals can better align their personal goals and needs to the overall organizational learning goals.How Does Context Play a Role?Implementing a successful learning program is both about the content and the organizational learning culture.Promoting a learning culture and implementing blended learning encourages flexibility and innovation because of exposure to various learning modalities. As such, people find themselves becoming more curious and they feel empowered as they choose what works for them. Not only do they bring this energy and mindset back to the workplace but they also bring new perspectives. As this article on blended learning and learning culture describes, blended learning offers varied viewpoints and different problem-solving approaches that also nurtures greater diversity.Book clubs are another transformational activity because they create a group setting that boosts collaboration and reflection as detailed in this whitepaper on what separates good teams from exceptional ones. How blended learning supports a learning culture and vice versa:Continuous improvement – With small continuous feedback loops and incremental steps, learners gradually shift their mindset to bring this approach to their everyday work.Knowledge sharing and collaboration – Through blended learning, various groups and forums are created, which naturally encourages cross-learning. As this behavior becomes instilled, conflict shifts into a natural sharing of ideas rather than a competition over who is right.Personalization alongside team focus – How to balance individual with team needs is a constant paradox. Blended learning provides another opportunity to explore this balance, which shifts mindsets back in the workplace.Maximize Your Blended Learning EffortsGone are the days of reading out slides to people in classrooms with the hope that they will improve their day-to-day work. With technology, we have an opportunity to make learning fun, personal, and relevant.Most importantly, blended learning creates a more memorable and meaningful learning experience. It also encourages collaboration and innovation because of the varied multimedia methodologies now available.Don’t forget to watch the ATD webinar recording with more tips for how to apply blended learning effectively. To learn is to evolve and embrace life, so let’s keep moving forward in how we learn.

How to Successfully Implement Blended Learning

The future of federal leadership is fraught with uncertainties and shaped by continuing resolutions, limited regulatory power, AI adoption, hybrid workplaces, and waves of retirements and new hires. More than 2.2 million federal employees, the largest workforce in the United States, will experience the ripple effects of these changes in the coming years. Federal leaders must navigate these complexities while continuing to implement policies and achieve mission goals. Current leaders, already overwhelmed, and future leaders, potentially unprepared, must be ready for the impact.Despite the perception that the government is slow to change, upcoming policy and technology disruptions will necessitate an evolution in leadership. Learning and development (L&D) professionals can equip leaders with the strategic mindset and analytical skills needed to anticipate, prepare for, and adapt to a range of future scenarios with confidence.Shifting to the CityscapeThe “view from the balcony” metaphor illustrates the importance of leaders having a broad perspective rather than only focusing on daily operations. However, federal leaders must zoom out even further to view the entire federal landscape, understanding the dependencies and implications at a macro level across multiple agencies. Mid-level and senior leaders must deepen their competence in interpreting policies and regulations as well as understanding how technology and talent developments will affect the federal market landscape and their home agencies. This begins with gaining fluency in how the entire federal government, not just a specific agency, operates.L&D professionals can facilitate this by adopting strategies from the private sector, offering training and tools for market landscape assessments, policy analysis, and human capital readiness assessments. By seeing the bigger picture, leaders can identify knowns within unknowns, providing clarity and certainty to upcoming threats to the current operating environment. For example, they can take tactical steps to hedge against budgetary changes, knowledge loss, and gaps in talent capabilities and bolster workforce and succession planning.Adopting Strategic Foresight Tools are essential for helping leaders think beyond the immediate horizon and consider multiple futures. OPM’s Strategic Foresight Guidebook, particularly the Cone of Plausibility model and Knowledge Grid, can be invaluable. These tools help uncover potential blind spots and mitigate risks, ensuring agility and institutional readiness in any scenario. They can also instill confidence in leaders, fostering a workplace that operates from confidence rather than fear while positively affecting organizational morale and performance.Preparing Leaders for Increased StressAccording to Gallup, workplace stress is on the rise, with managers experiencing more negative impacts than nonmanagers. This trend, compounded with future uncertainties, will likely add strain to federal leaders, who are already overwhelmed. Gallup research suggests that optimism and hope for the future can lead to improved engagement. Managers, who play critical roles in employee engagement and well-being, must instill optimism and hope in their teams despite increased stress.Leaders can achieve this by embracing the T.R.U.E. pillars—transparency, reliability, understanding, and expression—which help them support their teams authentically, even in challenging times. L&D professionals can also emphasize techniques to develop positive habits for stress management and resilience, helping leaders meet the increasing demands of their roles effectively. Addressing this critical need is essential; neglecting it could result in the attrition of a vital workforce segment that drives organizational success.Ultimately, Leaders Need More SupportThe increasingly complex federal environment requires leaders to adapt to a new landscape while achieving mission goals, maintaining personal well-being, and supporting employee engagement. OPM’s Workforce of the Future Playbook acknowledges the upcoming challenges and offers proactive measures to support future leaders. L&D professionals can amplify this support by thinking ahead and serving as guides, equipping leaders with the skills, knowledge, and tools needed to navigate this evolving landscape successfully. By fostering a broad perspective, supporting strategic insights, and promoting resilience, L&D professionals can ensure that federal leaders are prepared to meet the challenges of an increasingly complex environment with confidence and competence.

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