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Mary E. Settle

Developing Tomorrows Managers

Diagnostics First

    One of the biggest challenges e-learning designers face is how to add dynamic, engaging interactivity to courses without needing any advanced programming skills or a bigger budget. With Articulate Engage, anyone can quickly and easily build polished, professional interactions that transform learners from passive viewers into active participants.In a single window, Engage allows you to add text, record audio, and insert images, videos, or characters. By filling out the simplest of forms, you can build an interaction in minutes—instead of the hours, days, or even weeks it could take to program a custom interaction.Engage also provides a wide variety of options for breathing new life into boring content. Choose from 20 interactions that guide you with intuitive, easy-to-use forms to produce brilliant, engaging material.Here are just a few of the many ways you can use Engage to add interactivity to your online courses.Quick knowledge checksIf you want learners to apply or repeat back what they’ve learned without breaking the flow of your course, try creating a quick knowledge check using the Quick Choice interaction. It’s a great alternative to a full-fledged quiz or assessment because it keeps learning momentum going. View the Quick Choice InteractionInteractive scenariosOne of the best ways to add meaningful interactivity to your courses is to challenge your learners with realistic scenarios. Check out how the Tabs interaction enables you to apply the Three Cs of Scenario Building. All on one slide, it presents a challenge, offers some choices, and outlines the consequences of each choice.View the Tabs InteractionMedia galleriesIf you ever need to present a collection of media-rich content, Engage can help you create a professional-looking media gallery in no time.The Media Panel interaction makes it easy to present a series of images or videos, and it also leaves you plenty of room for text-based information.View the Media Panel InteractionThe Media Tour interaction is another way to create an interactive experience that guides learners through a collection of related multimedia content.View the Media Tour InteractionYou can use Engage interactions as either a stand-alone activity, like the examples above, or integrated into the content of your e-learning course.These are just a few of the many ways Engage can help you build more interactive courses. Once you see how quick and easy it is to create visually compelling e-learning content, you’ll never settle for dull again.If you’d like to try this yourself but don’t have Articulate Studio ’13, you can grab a fully functional, free 30-day trial.

Toolbox Tip: Build Interactive E-Learning with Articulate Engage

Federal agencies today are caught between two competing tensions. On one hand, there’s mounting pressure to modernize workforce capabilities and close critical skill gaps. On the other, agencies are losing headcount, consolidating systems, and being asked to deliver more with less.This paradox—do more, do it better, but do it with less—makes skill development feel daunting. The assumption that it requires a big budget or a tech-heavy transformation often leads to analysis paralysis. And the often-cited, utopian vision of becoming a “skills-based organization” can feel more aspirational than achievable, especially when just getting started feels overwhelming.New data from the World Economic Forum’s 2025 Future of Jobs Report reveals that by 2030, an estimated 39 percent of workers’ core skills are expected to change or be outdated due to macroeconomic, demographic, and technological shifts.So, here’s a question worth exploring: What if you don’t need expensive software or new infrastructure to grow the skills that matter? How might we tap into what we already have—and build on what we know about how adults actually learn?That’s where the Four Rs Framework comes in: resources, roles, relationships, and reflection. Based on lessons learned from years of public and private sector advisory work, this model helps agencies make practical progress—even with limited tools, budget, and time.Resources: Use What You Already Have When most people think of L&D, they think of content—designing it, delivering it, and scaling it. And while content has its place, many agencies already sit on a wealth of underutilized assets: compliance modules, standard operating procedures (SOPs), facilitator guides, orientation materials, and more.Rather than building something new, the opportunity lies in repurposing and reframing what already exists through the lens of your most critical skills.Tag existing content to your agency’s priority skills.Curate learning playlists by role, level, or skill domain.Reuse onboarding and compliance materials for broader development.Establish content governance to guide future curation.You don’t need more content—you need more clarity and intentionality around how it’s used. According to the 70-20-10 model, only 10 percent of learning comes from formal training, while 20 percent comes from learning through others, and 70 percent comes from experience.Roles: Let People Build Skills by Trying New OnesNo matter how engaging, dynamic, or thought provoking your content is, chances are your learners will forget most of it within hours. In fact, research shows people forget up to 70 percent of new information within 24 hours—and up to 90 percent within a month. One of the most effective—and overlooked—ways to build skills sustainably is to give employees the chance to practice them in real time. Development doesn’t need to come from a classroom or an e-learning module. It can come from stepping into new responsibilities and testing their skills in the flow of work. Ask someone to lead a project outside their usual role.Offer temporary rotations or cross-functional task force roles.Assign someone to shadow or backfill for another team.For learning to stick, people have to get comfortable being uncomfortable. It’s in the vulnerability of trying something new—working in a new function or stretching into leadership—that learning becomes real. This is where skills become sticky through application and reinforcement.Relationships: Make Learning Social Learning has always been social—but today, we can’t ignore just how much we absorb from those around us. We’re constantly scrolling, watching, reacting, and resharing. Whether it’s a TikTok tutorial or a colleague walking us through a process over Teams, our brains are wired to learn through interaction. The same is true at work. People don’t just learn from content—they learn from each other. And in lean environments, where formal training budgets are tight, relationships and internal expertise are powerful development tools.Create mentorship or buddy systems across departments—with a focus on key skills.Encourage peer-to-peer learning or informal knowledge sharing. Highlight internal subject matter experts (SMEs) through “Skill of the Month” lunch & learns.Form learning circles around critical capabilities. Use cohort or community functionality in your learning management system (LMS) or learning experience platform (LXP) to promote knowledge sharing. This isn’t just anecdotal. LinkedIn found that learners who engage with social features consume 30 times more hours of content than those who don’t. All of this requires planning—not budget.Reflection: Turn Experience Into GrowthAs an executive coach, I’ve seen firsthand that real behavioral change doesn’t come from the experience itself—it comes from making time to process it. The same applies to skill-building; it doesn’t stick unless people pause to reflect.Yet reflection is often overlooked. We jump from one task to the next, shifting gears before the learning has had a chance to settle. But when we slow down, even briefly, we create space for growth and reinforcement.Add reflection prompts to training or postmortems.Ask learners to journal or share key takeaways. Debrief after assignments: “What worked? What would you do differently?”A Harvard Business School study found that people who spent just 15 minutes reflecting after a task performed 23 percent better than those who didn’t. If we want skills to be developed for the long run, we need to make space for people to make meaning of what they’ve done. Start Where You AreWhile skill development is sometimes portrayed as a complex process, it doesn’t have to be hard. You don’t need a five-year roadmap or a massive transformation plan to begin. Start with the end in mind: What skills does your agency need to grow?Then, work backward from there—using creativity and a deeper appreciation for how adults learn.Yes, traditional training resources still matter. But employees also crave:Opportunities to apply skills on the jobHuman connection to learn from each otherSpace to reflect and improveThere’s no one-size-fits-all model. But the practices that make skill development effective—application, connection, reflection—don’t require a big budget or a sophisticated tech stack. They require intention, a bit of creativity, and a willingness to start where you are.

Building Skills on a Budget: The Four Rs Framework for Government Agencies

For 70 years, Denny’s has been an icon in the casual dining industry, building on its proud position as “America’s Diner.” To live up to its reputation of being a place where everyone is welcome, the company had to make diversity, equity, inclusion, and well-being a top priority.Beyond creating a safe and welcoming workplace, Denny’s leadership recognized that investing in DEI would improve employee engagement, reduce absenteeism, and improve overall financial performance. Additionally, prioritizing employee well-being can lower healthcare costs, increase productivity, and improve financial outcomes.Ultimately, the goal of these efforts is to establish a community where everyone feels valued, appreciated, and accepted as they are—and not just for guests but for team members as well. The challenge, as is often the case with large organizations, was finding a way to enact meaningful and sustainable change for all employees.The numbers don’t lie. Research shows that when employees feel a genuine sense of inclusion and belonging, their work performance increases by 56 percent, while sick days decrease by 75 percent, and the risk of turnover drops by half. Yet, just a single incident of micro-exclusion can lead to an immediate 25 percent decline in an individual’s performance.So, where to begin?Learning From the PastThe Denny’s brand has had its share of missteps over the years, culminating in a multi-million-dollar settlement payout in a 1994 racial bias lawsuit. Rather than bury or shy away from its past, however, the company has used this as an opportunity to learn and improve. The result: 58 percent of Denny’s restaurants are minority-owned. Likewise, among our board members, 56 percent come from underrepresented groups, and 44 percent are women. Yet, even with numbers trending in the right direction, Denny’s leadership recognized the need for ongoing and substantive DEI and well-being efforts.The fact is that most organizations approach DEI and well-being by providing a traditional one-day workshop. Unfortunately, this tactic fails to create awareness or generate an authentic change in the mindset or behaviors of many participants. Hence, the Denny’s Together initiative was born.Create a Place for AllThe Denny’s Together culture journey comprises several elements that support each other. The first is learning and embodying Denny’s “Rules to Live By,” which offers a set of foundational expectations that inform how team members treat Denny’s guests and one another. The L&D (leadership and development) team delivers interactive webinars and e-lessons to share these “rules” with restaurant team members.To boost awareness about DEI and well-being among Denny’s corporate team members, we offer the Go Beyond program. This collaborative program challenges participants to go on a journey of self-discovery as they take a deep dive into the advantages, barriers, and science of diversity, equity, and inclusion. Over 30 days, the program uses daily challenges to encourage team members to observe and explore their individual experiences and beliefs with compassion and curiosity.For example, Go Beyond kicks off with “reflection” activities, which include conversations led by other people leaders within the organization. In addition, there are community events where participants gather to share food and dialogue aided by conversation cards with specific reflection questions like, "What did you learn about bias and how it impacts your decision making?"What’s more, themed daily challenges and reflections, such as: “What Is Appearance Discrimination” and “How to Minimize the Bias Impact,” work to open participants’ minds about their own biases, attitudes, and relationships, while also coming together as one big Denny’s family. Example topics covered in these daily challenges include representation, appearance discrimination, implicit bias, inclusive language, empathy, bias blind spots, micro-affirmations, and allyship. Here’s an example of a daily challenge:Example of Daily ChallengeThe DEI Council and Business Resource Groups champion the theme. Team leaders discuss and reflect on challenge topics in meetings, and a weekly email supports exploring the challenges.To sweeten the pot and generate as much engagement as possible, raffles and giveaways for various challenges gamify the overall experience. For instance, all participants who complete challenges are entered to win a grand prize of two roundtrip airfare tickets to anywhere in the continental United States.Lasting ChangeThere were many lessons learned from the first two years of the Denny’s Together and Go Beyond programs. The four most powerful ones are:1. Get full buy-in from all key executives.2. Understand the culture you are starting with.3. Establish a sense of trust and safety for employees to freely participate.4. Set a high standard and invite employees to participate without a requirementIn addition to understanding that DEI efforts must be immersive to be effective, Denny’s leadership recognizes that achieving an entire cultural transformation that will affect the company from the top down and the bottom up requires an ongoing effort.But to measure the fruits of these efforts so far and guide future iterations, Denny’s leadership embarked on a comprehensive initiative to survey participants on how they felt about the Go Beyond program and the brand in general from a DEI perspective.Nearly all participants (94 percent) of team members felt that the Go Beyond program was an engaging experience, with 73 percent saying that it helped them grow as individuals. In fact, it was such a positive experience that 60 percent said they would be eager to participate again.More importantly, 82 percent of participants said they would recommend Denny’s as an employer, largely because of initiatives like this.Building on the success of Denny’s Together and the initial Go Beyond challenge, the company recently completed the second Go Beyond challenge, this time with the theme of Empowered Well-Being. Likewise, also in the works is the Championing Humanity challenge, a four-week reflection that will help participants discover what active allyship looks like, what shared power means, and most importantly, how to create a safe place for all.Moving forward, the L&D team is also working on rolling out a new leadership development program called Elevating the Power of We. This two-day, cohort-based program will have participants explore how to communicate in a supportive way, cultivate empathy and compassion, and genuinely listen to other people’s stories and perspectives.At Denny’s today, individuals are viewed as holistic beings. As such, their physical, emotional, and mental well-being must be prioritized. This is why Denny’s leadership is on a mission to create a brand that actively promotes mental fitness and overall empowered well-being. By creating a safe place to have candid conversations about real things that matter to real people, Denny’s is well on its way to creating a culture that embraces differences, welcomes personal stories, and celebrates all voices.

Denny’s Together

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