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Greetings!
Our next meeting is 5:30-7pm Wednesday, Feb. 18, at Intuit, 6888 Sierra
Ctr. Parkway, Reno. Guest Speaker: Illeana Vassiliou, IGT Dir. of Training
for HR, on "How to Make Leadership Development Successful". Members &
guests welcome. Details: www.astdnevada.org , or call 329-4241 or 233-3293
Our guest speaker is Illeana Vassiliou, IGT Director of Training for
HR, presenting on "How to Make Leadership Development Successful". Members
& guests welcome. Details: www.astdnevada.org , or call 329-4241 or
233-3293
ASTD 2004
ASTD 2004 is coming to the Washington Convention Center in Washington
DC, USA May 23 to 27, 2004. In addition to all the exciting speakers, the
EXPO, and educational sessions, we will continue a year-long celebration
of ASTD's 60th anniversary. The link below provides more information.
www.astd.org/ASTD/conferences/ice/Chapter_Docs
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President's Message |
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| February is a special month for many reasons,
for example: love, Mardi Gras, and leap year; consider also these
fun February facts: · February 2004 has five Sundays, an event that
only happens once every 28 years. · Besides other better known
events happening this month, the following 'holidays' fall in
February: International Dog Biscuit Appreciation Day (the 23rd) and
Public Sleeping Day (the 28th). I'll leave it up to your imagination
how best to celebrate these holidays! · And February also heralds
the advent of another great 2004 ASTD Sierra Nevada Chapter
membership meeting, this one to be generously hosted by Intuit, one
of our corporate members! Many thanks to Intuit!
Some other things that are happening in February are the
submission of the "CORE" annual update to ASTD National, preparation
of our chapter membership survey, and planning for the ASTD
International Conference and Exposition. CORE stands for Chapter
Operating Requirements, which were newly revamped for 2004. Through
CORE, ASTD outlines member services and operating principles
consistently required of all chapters, including such practices as:
having a membership communication piece, e.g., this newsletter,
offering professional development events, e.g., our membership
meetings and special events, conducting nomination and selection of
Board members, sending an annual update of chapter information to
ASTD National, publishing a yearly membership directory (issued
mid-year), creating an annual plan (see last month's newsletter),
surveying membership every other year (survey coming this month!),
and reporting how many chapter members are also National members. I
am happy to say that we are very nearly 100% compliant with all 17
CORE requirements! And to help us stay in compliance, be watching
for the aforementioned survey in the mail. Please fill it out and
return it as per the included instructions; we, your Board members,
need your input, so we know we are serving the true interests of our
members! And besides that, there will be 'prizes' involved for those
who fill out the survey!
Some of you may be thinking about attending the annual ASTD
International Conference and Exposition, being held this year in May
in Washington, D.C. ICE's excellent Keynote Speakers, Legends in
Training & Development Series, Pre-conference Workshops, varied
Conference Tracks, and Special Programming, not to mention the
myriad opportunities for networking and catching up on the latest in
training trends at the Expo, promise to provide a great learning
experience. If you go, remember to enter our chapter's code (CH8103)
in the Source Code box when registering. If you can't make it to
D.C., then plan on attending our June 16th membership meeting, where
I will be reporting back on the ICE experience.
Looking forward to seeing you on the 18th of this month at our
membership meeting at Intuit (6888 Sierra Center Parkway) to hear
Ileana Vassiliou of IGT speak on Leadership Development and to do a
bit of networking! Till then - Best regards to all, Shelley Shelley
MacDonald President, ASTD Sierra Nevada Chapter
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A FREE Gift For You |
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| To introduce the new SMALL BIZ DIRECTORY,
ItsSimple.biz is offering a FREE ad to ASTD members until April 1,
2004. List your products, services and contact information, include
pictures & logos, link directly to your website or email - all
with no fees and no future obligation.
With over a million hits a month, www.ItsSimple.biz is a great
way to market your business. Limited Time Offer!
FOR A FREE AD until April 1, 2004 - Go to the "sign up for our
Small Biz Directory" button at www.ItsSimple.biz Enter PROMO CODE
"3FREE"
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Software Training Formula for Success |
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| Whether you are a seasoned trainer who happens
to be new to the software training arena, or a subject matter expert
who is called upon to deliver occasional structured or ad hoc
training to your company's employees, there is an extremely
effective software training formula that will give you an edge and
yield stellar results every time. 1. Explain: As you introduce a
specific software application feature or function, take a couple of
minutes to explain what it does. You may also throw a question out
to the audience to gauge the level of familiarity with whatever you
are explaining. Example: Next, we are going to cover how to do a
mail merge within Microsoft Word. Does anyone have any experience
with this feature and what it does? Yes, Judy, you're absolutely
correct: It allows you to create one standard form letter and then
print or email it to many recipients without having to manually type
in each person's name, address, and so on.
2. State Benefit(s): Even if you do a great job explaining what a
feature or function does, it will fall flat with many students until
they buy in to what it will do for them. Overcoming the "what's in
it for me" attitude is easy when you speak to tangible benefits that
will save time and energy, while reducing frustration. Often,
students will respond with, "I've always wondered how to do that."
Again, solicit responses from students who can back up your stated
benefit(s). Example: Does anyone have experience using this feature?
Yes, Mary, why don't you tell us about it? Absolutely, mail merge is
a huge time saver when you need to send the same letter to many
different people. From within Microsoft Word, you can merge names
and addresses from several existing data sources including an Access
database, an Excel Spreadsheet, or an Outlook Address Book.
3. Show: Next, (assuming your computer is connected to some kind
of projection device) you will demonstrate the feature or function
for the students, narrating every mouse click as you go. The trick
here is to get everyone's undivided attention because some students
will attempt to "follow you" as you do it. An effective management
technique is to have students put their hands on top of their
monitors. I've also seen trainers tape a piece of paper to the top
of each monitor that can be pulled down to hide the screen. Or, just
have the students turn their monitors off until you're done. Tips:
If you have an obviously advanced (and bored or disruptive) student
in your class, give him or her the opportunity to "drive" and
perform the click-through demonstration as you narrate it. This will
alleviate the boredom and will provide an opportunity for the
student to "strut his or her stuff." This strategy will lead to
fewer disruptions and confrontations if you have an advanced student
who attempts to undermine your class. Also, practice your
demonstrations several times beforehand and know the steps "cold."
There's nothing worse than clicking through a demo that doesn't work
as you described it (or doesn't work at all). The lost credibility
takes a long time to regain.
4. Do: Once you've successfully demonstrated the feature or
function, it's time to have the students give it a try. Make sure to
have practice files available ahead of time to facilitate this step.
Tip: The most effective way to avoid the "I'm lost" syndrome is to
walk the classroom and lend encouragement or provide supportive
corrective measures as students practice the skill on their own. DO
NOT grab the mice or keyboards (tempting as it might be) and do the
skill for them! Put your hands in your pockets if you have to! The
only exception is to correct some kind of technical glitch not
related to the training, in which case you should always ask
permission to touch a user's mouse or keyboard beforehand.
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| 5. Review: This step is the easiest to gloss
over... especially if you're "behind" time-wise in delivering the
class. But for adults in particular, reinforcement is required in
order to have the best chance of the new skill sticking with them.
So don't skip over this! Example: So, now we've all seen and
practiced doing a basic mail merge. Wasn't that easy? Who would like
to review the main steps we performed to do it?
6. Transition: This final step is critical in providing adult
learners with a sense of continuity and logic as you move through a
training session. Sometimes transitions from one skill to another or
from chapter to chapter are natural, but sometimes there's no
logical connectiing...in which case, don't force one. Also, if
you've "parked" a question and you will be covering that item next,
acknowledge it to the class. Examples: Congratulations on
successfully completing a mail merge, and you all did a great job! I
know for some of you that was your first time. But wait, there's
more! Turn to page 68 in your manual and let's take a look at some
advanced mail merge techniques. This section will answer your
previous question, John, about how to mail merge to envelopes and
labels. OR We've just completed the mail merging chapters, and now
we're going to shift gears a bit and move on to the next chapter:
Applying Formatting Techniques.
And then the six step process outlined above begins again for the
next skill you present. One last piece of advice: As you get used to
this formula, consider writing notes to yourself in your training
guide to prompt you through each step. After a while, it will become
second nature. Happy software training!
Kurt Frohlich is the owner of Apex Performance Solutions; a
consulting firm specializing in customized software application
training for classroom and online delivery
(www.solutionsbyapex.com). He is also an ASTD Nevada Board Member.
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