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Stuart is an enthusiastic and professional individual, who enjoys being part of, as well as leading, a successful and productive team. Quick to grasp new ideas and concepts, and to develop innovative and creative solutions to problems. As a community manager for Hilti, Stu is responsible for producing content and engaging in conversations that build internal collaboration within defined communities. He is the bridge that ensures that users of the system are heard and that they have the best possible learning experience throughout their journey with Hilti. Keen to build an extensive network within Learning and Development. Stuart holds several coaching badges, a CIPD Level 5 Diploma in Learning and Development and holds a degree in eCommerce.

Stuart Ryan

Satya Nadella is a name you may not know, but you likely know the company where he is CEO—Microsoft. When Nadella took on the role as leader of this software powerhouse in February 2014, he called together the executive team to discuss how to offer better professional development to employees. Nadella firmly stated that Microsoft must use its talent where it can be most productive. He asserted, “Happy employees don’t leave the organization. They give 110 percent and allow us to continue to innovative.” Nadella issued Microsoft executives an assignment: Ask key performers whether they are doing their best work? And if they say no, listen and make changes so that they are. Nadella’s directive was simple but powerful. Many managers where surprised when several employees answered that career-changing question with a resounding NO. And then they did exactly as directed; they moved the key performer to a new job area or shifted their workload to retain talent—not just to remain at Microsoft but to thrive.  Bottom line: unhappy employees leave jobs. In fact, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that 2 million workers leave their current employer every month. The financial cost to companies that lose employees is astronomical. What Trainers Can Do to Reverse This Tide   Trainers play a key role in career development. Encouraging managers and staff to reach their career goals not only makes their work lives more satisfying, but it also helps ensure the company’s continued success. Over a working lifetime, many new job areas and career paths will emerge. Organizations must develop today’s employees, so they can work on future products, services, and programs. The average person will make five to seven career changes as new fields, job titles, and whole industries develop. Helping individuals identify their strengths and encouraging career development, trainers can motivate employees to achieve their best work. This is a win-win for the employee and the organization. Here are several ways trainers can help their organizational retention efforts. Review Your Organization’s Career Development Programs Trainers must analyze what areas of professional development services your company offers its employees. Start by asking questions. Talk to employees in various departments. Investigate their knowledge of what is available. Ask them if they know about the company’s training and development programs that can benefit their careers. Be sure you ask about career development specifically. Keep in mind: It doesn’t matter what you actually offer, it’s more important to learn what employees THINK is available to them. Also, make note of any classes, programs, or services they want, so you can consider adding them to your offerings.   Be a Forward Thinker Trainers should encourage employees to pursue career development opportunities that support their continued professional growth. Even in tough times, it's important to allot time and money for classes, training, and other professional development opportunities. Career development is a lifelong process. Although the individual is ultimately responsible for their own professional development, the training function can offer education to advance skills through leadership, technical, and soft skills training. Yet, when many employees are surveyed, they want personal help, such as career counseling and planning assistance, as well as guidance on potential job promotions. Be sure your training department supports this need. Train Managers on How to Provide Career Coaching It is important to train line managers on how to support the career goals of their teams. Often, this is an overlooked but essential key in retaining employees. Managers need to learn coaching techniques and how to offer professional development guidance to staff. With training, Managers will become better equipped to schedule regular discussions with team members about their career goals and how to achieve them. Indeed, regular conversations are a simple and convenient way not only to encourage career development, but to show interest in the team. More importantly, these conversations are extremely valued by the employee and significantly help with retention. You Make the Difference Being innovative and creating new employee development programs is a necessary way to reduce attrition. Microsoft’s new CEO was right when he said that happy employees—those who feel that they are making important contributions and are satisfied with their work—don’t leave the company. These productive employees make it stronger and a better place for everyone who works there.                                                                                     Robin Ryan is a featured speaker at the ATD 2015 Conference and Exposition. Join her for the session, M108 - Maximizing Internal Employee Career Development to Improve Retention, May 18, 2015.

The Silent Profit Killer: How YOU Can Stop Employee Attrition

I watch my middle-aged dogs go through the same ritual every day: They stare each other down, locking eyes, and freezing in mid-stride for several seconds. Then, as though an unseen signal has been transmitted, they leap away, tumbling over each other, and playtime begins.If you’ve ever had a pet, you already know that domesticated animals like to play. In fact, there is pretty clear evidence that all animals play, not just the kittens and puppies on YouTube. Baby elephants slide down muddy hills; ravens snowboard on their bellies; herring gulls play catch in mid-air; even ants and inch worms have been caught at what appears to be playful activity. And if you need a pick-me-up, try watching this elk on a trampoline.Mystery of playThis behavior, so common across so many species, is something of a mystery to animal behaviorists. You see, from a biological point of view, animals select for behaviors that provide some kind of survival advantage.So, if everyone is playing, there must something really special about it. We just haven’t been able to prove what it is. And we are far from understanding the mechanism for play in the brain. What trigger makes my dogs agree that it’s playtime?For years, the assumption was that play was a chance to practice activities that would be helpful in adult life, such as fighting skills or tracking prey. There are two problems with this theory: 1) it has yet to be proven, and 2) it doesn’t explain why adults still engage in play. One scientist tested this theory by tracking early play in meerkats and found no correlation between play and future survival.This result has been repeated over and over again, as scientists have tried to prove the “value” of play. The very definition of “play” implies that it is an activity with no apparent value or purpose.Window of neuroscienceRecently, neuroscience has opened a window on this mysterious behavior. Dr. Stuart Brown has been studying the nature of play using the tools of neuroscience. He traces play all the way back to the “big bang,” when a massive explosion introduced random movement of atomic particles into the universe.His work makes a compelling, evidence-based case that play begins at birth and enriches survival throughout our lives. He was able to place brain imaging devices on a mother and infant and capture the activity of the right cortex at the moment of mother-baby connection we call “baby talk.” During this process, the cerebellum sends signals to the frontal cortex, stimulating language and cognitive functions.Implications of play in human capital managementEngaging in play makes physical, positive changes in your brain. You become better at solving problems, improve empathy, recognize patterns, and handle stress. Cancer patients playing a game that lets them “shoot” cancer cells develop a more positive attitude towards their own illness and may improve survival rates.Play is a natural and important brain activity that enhances performance. Maybe that’s why places like Google and Zappos are considered great places to work. Here are a few suggestions for incorporating play into work: Why Play Matters for Adults.The next time your pet or child is in a playful mood, join in! You’ll be making new neural connections in the process.For more on neuroscience applications for human capital, check out the full blog series here.

Play as a Development Mechanism

It’s a reality. Most people’s lives are touched by technology in some way, shape, or form, but for the Millennial generation, technology is their world. This makes managing Millennials a unique challenge that, ironically, technology and data can help solve. Case in point: A Pew Research Center study found that Millennials are the first “always connected” generation. These digital natives are literally marinating in technology. Social media is more than an obsession; it’s a fact of life. Millennials are married to their devices, using them as constant lifelines to the world at large. Now what if, through the use of data, we could better assess not just what Millennial employees are doing, but why they’re doing it? It’s true that companies have been leveraging data for years to customize their customer approach and product offerings, but enhancing the employee experience is equally important. With Millenialls that’s what they’ve come to expect. At Qualtrics we’re experiencing hyper growth. We’ve gone from 150 to 350 employees in the last year alone, and a huge percentage of our workforce is comprised of Millennials. What’s interesting is that a huge portion of this growth is through surveys sent via our platform and used to gather employee feedback. So, we understand how to manage Millennials first-hand, and we know that they want feedback constantly, to be trained, and to be provided with tools to learn and grow. And that makes sense, right? I mean, as CEO, I spend more than 30 percent of my time recruiting and interviewing, trying to build our organization. But really that’s only half the equation. It’s not enough to simply bring people onboard, yet this is where too many organizations stop. Enter radical transparency For maximizing all the potential hidden within your Millennial workforce, I recommend a development approach built on the tenets of radical transparency. This is the idea that everyone in an organization knows everything, and it sits nicely within the expectations of Millennial workers. Here are a few ways to implement this practice in your organization. Stay focused. Millennials thrive with focused goals. But we’ve also learned that it’s hard for most people to effectively plan more than 90 days out. This is especially true for Millennial workers. Address this by having every employee set measurable and visible goals at the beginning of each quarter, then have staff break these down into weekly objectives. This approach helps focus individual employee activities and diminishes the external noise that can often overwhelm people. But it also helps you climb into the minds of your staff—to understand what they believe to be their greatest contributions. So, use this as an opportunity to communicate with employees and pinpoint how the organization can help them achieve these goals. Lead with data or they’ll find it anyway. We’re in the middle of a talent war. As a result, organizations spend a lot of time and energy bringing people into the building, and not enough time endowing them with the training and information to excel. At Qualtrics, we know that radical transparency intensifies corporate loyalty and empowerment, because we use data to measure it by explicitly linking employee data to performance. Every employee is benchmarked, all data are broadly accessible, and all employees are treated accordingly. In fact, for our hyper-social Millennial workers, we’ve found that socially sharing employee data through an internal scalability and execution platform, works beautifully to fuel increased employee engagement and heightened performance. Remember, any good decision is an informed decision. So share relevant company and employee data or people will spend all of their time trying to find it. When they do that,  they take their eyes off the ball and become too internally focused. This mentality endangers the whole organization. Communicate information such as expense reports, paid time off, weekly and monthly goals, even meeting notes. This level of transparency allows organizations to promote the rock stars, but also to learn from the collective mistakes. It’s important to share mistakes and create an environment that gives employees permission to make a mistake or two. Guide  and grow talent:  Millennials like to receive near-constant feedback to understand how their roles contribute to the organization. That’s why the principles of radical transparency work so well for this generation. Not only do employees receive continual feedback on individual performances, but they’re also in the loop on their co-workers performance. We’ve found that making the accomplishments of top performers available for comparison against the company as a whole motivates others to excel. But even better is that staff will start to emulate the right behavior by shadowing the competent, not the confident. Just ask. While Millennials like to get feedback, they also like to give it. They are accustomed to socially sharing opinions freely. Don’t believe me? Simply go and look at one of these employees’ Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram accounts. Here Millennials constantly broadcast opinions to the world. Point being, if your business isn’t providing a channel to capture this feedback then it’s a missed opportunity. But be sure to gather employee insight in a way that enables staff to give feedback without fear of retribution. Ask the tough questions. Then, use the results to implement change. You’re likely to see common patterns by taking a data-driven approach. Use these insights to make improvements and provide better-customized training and communication initiatives.Let’s face it; this isn’t 1985 and every person we hire needs to think independently. While we can’t control how employees think, we can influence their work environment. More important, we can give them the data they need to make informed decisions. So empower your staff with the ability give—and get—data on anything. Use technology to over communicate and to ensure that all staff is involved and aware of internal activities, challenges, and milestones. For the savvy, connected, and socially enabled Millennial worker, technology is and will likely remain a central component of their lives. Some claim that this technology-gripped generation is filled with entitled, short attention span creatures that are difficult to manage. But with the right technology tools in place, and by being radically transparent, organizations can nurture Millennial workers and harvest a breadth of fresh ideas built on the back of data.

Data and the Millennial Mind

 

The Coaching Habit has helped thousands of leaders stay curious a little longer and rush to advice a little more slowly. Now, there’s a new way to bring that change to life.

 

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What You’ll Learn


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DEMO: Choose Your Own Adventure With the Coaching Habit Learning Journeys

During the Association for Talent Development’s Virtual Conference, author and Bloomsburg University professor Karl Kapp in his live session answered an array of questions about getting started with microlearning and gamification, about tools and platforms, and about gaining buy-in.Ahead of the session, facilitated by Ryan Changcoco, senior manager for ATD’s Management and Healthcare Communities of Practice, conference attendees were encouraged to listen to two on-demand sessions by Kapp: “Beyond Gamification: Think Like a Game Designer to Create Engaging, Meaningful Instruction” and “Microlearning—Short and Sweet: Making Microlearning Work in Your Organization.” The latter was co-facilitated with Robyn DeFelice.Of both gamification and microlearning, when asked about getting started, Kapp advised L&D professionals to consider learning objectives and to focus on the learner. What do learners need to know?With regard to microlearning, for example, he suggested going after low-hanging fruit and thinking about what would make the greatest impact on the organization. This could include sending an email to customer service reps or having a short module to help employees with a task they complete frequently, such as expense reports.When it comes to games and gamifications, many in the L&D field will likely think of the classic points, badges, and leaderboard rewards. But when using extrinsic motivational rewards such as those, explained Karl Kapp in “Beyond Gamification,” you continually have to up the reward. Instead, instructional designers can use a learners’ intrinsic motivators: challenge, curiosity, control, fantasy, cooperation, competition, and recognition.Also in the “Beyond Gamification” session, Kapp detailed how L&D professionals can use such tools as fantasy, failure, mystery, challenge, and choice in a game setting to grab learners’ attention and desire to learn. Learners will be motivated when they have autonomy, mastery, and relatedness, Kapp noted, and this was a theme he echoed during his live session. He also reiterated having a place that allows learners to fail and struggle, creating “desirable difficulties.”To secure buy-in from stakeholders on gamification, Kapp suggested not selling it as such but pitching it as an activity that will engage, is measurable, and will lead to positive end results. He said it is a form of “genuine authentic memory enhancement.” And yes, that four-letter phrase with each word’s beginning letter spelling game is by design.When developing their definition of microlearning, Kapp and Defelice—as Kapp noted in the live session—were careful not to put an exact amount of time, such as three or seven minutes, on what constitutes microlearning. Instead, as they explained in “Microlearning—Short and Sweet,” they see microlearning as an “instructional unit that provides a short engagement in an activity intentionally designed to elicit a specific outcome from the participant.”The two thought long and hard about the elements of that definition. For example, instructional unit indicates that the microlearning is a start-to-finish learning or performance support. It’s not part of a chopped-up longer module. And engagement is to indicate that the participants’ attention is tuned into the event and that they interact with that event or activity.Further, Kapp and Defelice explained the types of microlearning: primary, preparation, pensive, performance, persuasive, post-instruction, and practice-based learning modules. The number of types hints at many possibilities with microlearning.Amid asking questions of Kapp, attendees from around the world offered each other resources, tools and platforms, and best practices of their own, in addition to networking together.Share your ATD Virtual Conference experience on social media. #ATDVirtualConference

Karl Kapp: Focus on the Learner

Why enroll in ATD’s Instructional Design Certificate program?To date, more than 5,000 instructional designers have taken this hands-on experiential course to create outcome-based learning programs using a systematic approach.Participants in the Instructional Design Certificate program will gain a strong foundation in the needs assessment process to analyze organizational, performance, and performer needs. You will walk away with tools and templates that will help you create participant guides, learner resources, and other supporting materials that you can use at your job.That’s right—we’ll give you the knowledge and best practices to improve your skills and provide the resources you need to immediately apply the learning and wow your colleagues.Don’t just take my advice to sign up ... check out what participants had to say after completing this program.Why this course?"I am new to instructional design, and our instructor provided us with a framework for each major design methodology. I learned that many times the best approach to developing a learning project is a blended approach. I found this course helpful in explaining the basic information I need to be a high performer in my new role." —Sarah Callahan"The course materials are well-designed and very practical. The checklists and job aids will be very useful in designing instructional design programs. The program followed best practices in adult learning and focused on practical application. The activities were … respectful of my professional experience and my time." —Edwin PerezWhat were the most relevant topics covered in this course?"The course challenged my past knowledge and made me realize how much more room I had to improve. There were so many takeaways, from how to start the design process to reminders of training methods like ADDIE and others, and almost three months later I still find myself reviewing my notes and materials. It provided the tools I needed to continue to affect change within my company in the area of training design." —Foluke Jeboda"This program gives so many great tips on how to tweak designs that are fast and simple. For example, I was able to use Benjamin Bloom's Taxonomy of Learning as a more powerful tool during course design. I also was given the tools to help my design documents be more useful." —Ryan WIlliamsInvest in yourself. You are worth it!

Inside Scoop: Instructional Design Certificate Reviews

 TechKnowledge is less than a month away, and I can't wait!This is going to sound a little doe-eyed, but last year's event was no less than transformative for me; I presented at a major industry conference for the first time and met a slew of incredible people who have continued to be amazing resources over the past year.Some of that happened through serving on the planning committee for the 2012 event. We've worked hard over the past year to bring you a conference that serves a wide range of audiences and needs. Look at the schedule and you'll see some sessions that go well beyond the basics, such as Reuben Tozman's session on ID for a semantic web and Tim Martin's session on the next generation of SCORM, as well as a wide variety of foundational sessions.I'm also thrilled that in addition to the less-formal panels called TK Chats that were pioneered last year, there will be a Tech Kafe: a space for people to meet and chill when they want to keep discussions going--hopefully through Twitter as well as in person--even when they're not up for a formal session. (More on that later.) And I'm excited that there will be a keynote, several concurrent sessions, and a TK Chat devoted to gaming/gamification/gamefulness; with so many opportunities to learn and discuss, I hope attendees are going to be able to figure out how much is hype and how much is relevant to their own organizations.Finally, you're going to see more integration with social media, both leading up to the conference and during, with efforts like the TechKnowledge 2012 Blog, the Twitter-based Tech + Knowledge scavenger hunt, and Tech Kafe. (And Brian Dusablon and I even contributed to the conference previews in a highly unofficial capacity by drinking and talking with Julie Dirksen and Diane Elkins, TK12 speakers on usability and accessibility, on The ToolBar podcast this month.) Whether you're at the conference or not, stay up-to-date with all the TK happenings by following the hashtag: #astdTK12.I've asked other members of the planning committee to share what they're looking forward to most, as well. Here's what they have to say:As much excitement as I have for all of the great concurrent sessions at this year's TK, I'm even MORE excited about TK Chat and Tech Kafe (new this year). Chats are informal talk-show-style conversations with deep thinkers on key topics -- we'll have a little stage and a cozy couch and roaming microphones to get everyone involved. Right next to the TK Chat area is the Tech Kafe, a chill-out space where you can continue those deep conversations and connect with other conference attendees and speakers. I plan on hanging out in these two spaces as much as I possibly can. So come on down and join the fun!- Cammy Bean, aka @cammybean Events like TechKnowledge 2012 are opportunities for me to dwell together with friends and colleagues from across the learning and training community. I enjoy the opportunities for us to sit together and explore what we're each doing. I'm always seeking to adopt new patterns into my craft, as well as have my assumptions challenged. My favorite thing that happens at events like TechKnowledge: the discovery of someone bright and wonderful who happens to share some huge ideas that I didn't know I needed to know. It happened to me at TK11 and I'm really looking forward to lightning striking twice this year, too.- Aaron E. Silvers, aka @aaronesilversIt's always fantastic to join together at TechKnowledge with like-minded learning professionals, and friends new and old, and this year will be no different. We will come together from around the globe to share best practices and encourage one another to take the next step in our learning journeys. I am also looking forward to hearing from the keynote speakers: Jane McGonigal, Stuart Crabb, and Lisa Doyle. Each one is sure to share cutting edge thinking and best practices about learning. They will challenge me to try new things and see new possibilities. I can't wait!- Cindy Huggett, aka @cindyhuggConferences like TechKnowledge provide the opportunity for individuals in the learning community to get together and share ideas and concepts about how our craft can be improved. As much as I enjoy the concurrent sessions, I think my favorite part of these events is actually getting to meet many of the folks that I interact with on a daily basis over services like Twitter. While learning communities online are pretty fantastic, nothing beats the face to face interactions that can be found at these conferences. These opportunities to meet new people and converse without the limits of 140 characters are really what makes TechKnowledge such a great event.- Kris Rockwell, aka @krisrockwellThere are so many good reasons to join us in Las Vegas in January. And when you do, don't be afraid to ask questions, answer someone's tweets, start up conversations in any way you can. The most important lesson I learned last year is that conferences are like soylent green: They're made of people. And TK12 will have plenty of people worth getting to know.See you there!Judy Unrein designs learning solutions at Artisan E-Learning, blogs at E-Learning Uncovered and onehundredfortywords, and tweets at @jkunrein.

Looking Forward to TechKnowledge 2012!

(From PRNewswire) -- Companies leveraging new ideas and innovation will be able to distinguish themselves from competitors in the global marketplace. No longer the purview of only Research & Development departments, innovation may spring from any employee - especially when they are encouraged and motivated by management, says the new Performance Perspectives executive briefing, released today by Madison Performance Group."In companies with innovative environments, employees feel management is open to new ideas and experimentation. These companies understand that new strategic ideas come from all levels of an organization," says Mike Ryan, Senior Vice President of Madison Performance Group, a premier global reward and recognition design and consulting firm.Research shows, according to the Madison briefing, that innovators flourish at workplaces where employees are rewarded for idea development."Companies that give positive attention to new ideas demonstrate to employees that it's okay to experiment and develop new ideas - even if they aren't 'perfect' the first time around," adds Ryan. "In fact, showering positive attention on new ideas is considered a best practice at innovative companies. And because innovation is often a project-based activity, the simple recognition of a new idea by a manager can kick start its adoption into a firm's work processes."Read more.

Recognition a Viable Strategy for Fostering Innovation in the Workplace

Occasionally we gloss over the basics. Here's a good resource, Usability News, and a good read on single versus multiple column layouts that we can apply to learning and elearning materials.In summary, the major findings regarding line length, justification, and multi-column displays and online reading have been:Longer line lengths generally facilitate faster reading speeds.Shorter line lengths result in increased comprehension.The optimal number of characters per line is between 45 and 65.Paging through online text generally results in better comprehension than scrolling.Reading speed is faster for both single and multiple columns, but preference is for multiple short columns.Left-justified text is read faster than full-justified text.From Is Multiple-Column Online Text Better? It Depends! by J. Ryan Baker, full article here: http://psychology.wichita.edu/surl/usabilitynews/72/columns.htmApologies about the duplication to readers of my own blog, but I thought this worthy of posting here. Even an immersive VR simulation has been known to start with or include some text.

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