In our book Mission Possible, my coauthor Terry Waghorn and I state that the most important earthly relationship you can cultivate as a leader is your relationship with yourself.  That might sound self-serving, but think about it—how well do you really know yourself? Every leader should have a purpose—a reason for being—something to strive for. A purpose is different from a goal because it is ongoing. It has no beginning or end. As a leader, your purpose comprises two elements: a personal mission statement and a set of values that define your strengths and help you make values-based decisions on a daily basis. Having a clear purpose gives meaning and definition to a leader’s life. Some people have asked me if making money is a good purpose.  There’s nothing wrong with wanting to make money—and it may be a goal to work toward—but it’s not a purpose. Purpose isn’t about achievement. It is much bigger. Your purpose is your calling. It’s about what business you are in as a person. I ask leaders to spend time developing their personal mission statement by answering these four questions: Why am I in the world? What is my overarching purpose? What would I like people to say about me after I’m gone? What difference will it have made that I was here? The next step is to identify your personal values by answering these questions: What is really important to me? What do I stand for? What three values do I want to live by? Which of those values is most important? Going through this process takes some soul searching and quiet, thoughtful time. This isn’t an exercise to rush through. Once you clearly understand your motivation and intention as a leader, you are able to monitor yourself on a daily basis. You’ll begin to notice certain actions that are more in line with your purpose than others. And you’ll begin eliminating behaviors that don’t support your purpose—and staying on a path of continuous personal improvement. When you really know who you are as a leader, you can operate more efficiently and calmly while making meaningful decisions. But the best part is that you’ll also be able to bring out the magnificence in others. And isn’t that the most important role of a leader?

As the NFL season kicks off, there's always fascinating drama about which players will make it, sit or disappear entirely.  I'm not a big fan of football, but I am always interested in the interaction of people and leaders.  Clearly, top players have amazing natural talent but they will all tell you that it was hard work and focus that got them in the game. In the non-football world of work, similar dances occur all year.  Many of my customers are in the midst of change. Concurrently, large companies are flattening, increasing the span of control, 'making offers' and demoting.  Hiring is also occurring with new leadership replacing the old.  'It's going to be REALLY different' is the rallying cry.  Even here are Russell Martin & Associates, we are looking at new approaches and questioning everything we spend time and money on. A place in the GAME is never guaranteed.   I'm 'wicked old', so I've seen and lived this cycle many times before. Here are my thoughts about getting benched or staying in the game as a leader.Grow Your TalentMitigate Busy-nessKnow Your PurposeLead as a Whole Person

As a Leader, your job is to grow the leaders of the future.  How much of your day is doing versus leading?  Many of us have to balance both, but leadership is less measurable and is often neglected.  Do any of these benching mindsets sound familiar?​This is an emergency, it will be easier to do it myself than explain it to someone else.No one else is as effective as I am, so I really can't delegate. The customers prefer that I be involved.  I am shocked at how many of our large and small customers have no succession plan.  Mission Critical business knowledge is at risk. Aggressive hiring has created a revolving door of employees.   Someone is trying to hire your staff right now, or you have the wrong people.  The old adage "people leave bosses" is still true.  Your annual engagement survey is not sufficient - by the time you see the results, the people will have left. Establish a process for growing talent.  There are only three main actions of growing talent:FINDENGAGEGROWWhen you are looking for a new employee, FIND is the process of picking the best candidate for the specific job.  If you are still hiring great people and not looking at how they'll do in the job, you're backwards.  If you do not use Job Benchmarks to hire, your bias is creating churn. ENGAGE is another word for onboarding.  There is a critical window (some say 1 day) within which an employee decides whether or not they like their job.  Poor leaders are too busy to drop everything to enable new employees.  Instead, the new person is spending days on boring compliance training or unstructured meetings with people who are too busy to meet with you. Or the new employee is thrown into the deep end with no help and no hope.  The expense of this behavior is staggering to a business. Instead, leverage the Job Benchmark to create a unique onboarding plan for new employees, provide a mentor and get them to work.Finally, learning can't just occur at the hiring point, although that seems to be the new norm.  To get promoted and move up in the company, if that's your goal, requires learning new strengths and competencies.  The Career Plan drives a Succession Plan (GROW).  Who are the leaders ready to replace you so you can move up?  The process repeats for every job move: FIND (the job or employee), ENGAGE, GROW.  NOTE: More details on this approach in the August Learning Flash, and in our book to be published in 2017 Talent GPS.  If you are interested in being a volunteer editor of this book written by Brittney Helt, Michelle Baker and me email us, info@russellmartin.com.

Admittedly, the technologies make us more efficient, increase our speed of interaction, and help us to be more productive. 

Managers typically react to the performance of their direct reports with one of three responses: positive, negative, or no response at all. It isn’t hard to guess which one works best for increasing good performance—the positive response. A person who does something correctly and receives a positive response will most likely continue to perform using that desired behavior in the future. By the same token, a person who receives a negative response for doing something wrong will most likely not repeat the behavior. So, in effect, even performance that gets a negative response can improve if the manager coaches the person and encourages them to improve. The most dangerous response a leader can offer is no response at all. Think about it. If someone performs tasks and completes projects correctly and receives no response from their manager, how do you think they will perform in the future? The good performance might continue for awhile, but eventually it will decline. Why? Because no one seems to care. What about the person who makes mistakes but is never corrected? It seems logical that if a person is left to fail again and again with no support or direction, their performance will get even worse. It is the leader’s responsibility to help everyone succeed. Ignoring bad behavior hurts not only the individual, but also their manager and the organization as a whole. It’s just bad business. Even though leaders are busier than ever these days, most still notice when their people are doing great or when they need coaching. The big mistake happens when the manager doesn’t say it out loud. I often say "Good thoughts in your head, not delivered, mean squat!" If you want your people to achieve and maintain high performance, let them know that you notice and care about the things they do right—and that you want to help them when they are off track. Share your thoughts. No one can read your mind. Be consistent with your communication and you will build a consistently high performing team.

Our belief: At Vignettes Learning we use stories in eLearning; however, we make them interactive. The emphasis is getting learners involved in the story and not just telling the learners the story.Synthesis. eLearning designs should not spoon-feed learners. Developers and designers are encouraged to create modules that challenge the intelligence and creativity of the learners. Knowledge spoon-feeding would create infants out of learners. Image SourceThe job of eLearning designers should enable learners to reflect, discover and decide rather than just giving information out. Creating the proverbial comfort zone in eLearning designs is the formula for boredom. The so-called ‘comfort zone’ induces students to become passive. It dulls their minds and suppresses creativity.Facilitators and trainers shift the control of the learning from the learners to them by giving too much information and data. Overly eager designers tend to manipulate the modules to attain their desired results. They want the learners to win the ballgame according to their terms and biased outcomes. Intellectual constraints build mental muscles. Muscles are formed by consistently engaging them with artificial stress and constraints. You don’t need Arnold Schwarzenegger to tell you that. Likewise, designers must push elearners’ to critically think and carry some mental burden to arrive at or discover learning nuggets. Let them travel through a labyrinth and discover their way out in the quest to acquire knowledge.As an eLearning designer, I understand the dilemma that my fellow colleagues face in the industry. By designing lessons that give more control to learners, we make ourselves ‘obsolete’. It’s a scary thought, right? I aired this matter in my blog : Are Trainers Still Needed? In that blog, I wrote: Informal learning, social learning, or learning based on the learners’ choices or options are certainly redefining the roles of trainers, learning specialists and even learners themselves. As they take more control of their own learning on their own terms, this becomes a frightening scenario to many learning specialists."Letting go of control" pushes trainers to rethink their roles in the learning process. However, rather than balk at the prospect, it is about time that this becomes an open issue. Years ago, letting go of control was like committing suicide where trainers are concerned.Truth to say, we trainers, never had total control. We’ve always felt, thought and convinced ourselves that we control learning because we instruct and teach knowledge. However in reality, learners choose to learn based on their own personal goals. So, this openness about losing control is not entirely novel news. It should no longer be a surprise.Interestingly, this is the same concept that Adam Richardson wrote in his Harvard Business Review article entitled ‘Boosting Creativity Through Constraints’. In that article, Richardson writes: Conventional wisdom holds that the best way to boost a team's creativity is to unshackle them from constraints. The less they have to worry about, the more open they'll be with their ideas, the theory goes. Budget? Unlimited! Ideas from outside? Bring 'em on! Different business model? Consider it entertained! Unfortunately this approach can actually be counter-productive.Some constraints are realities that must to be dealt with — laws of physics, or perhaps a budget. Other constraints may seem immovable but upon inspection are actually assumptions based on the past — your business model, or which customers and needs you serve, for example.Constraints have a Goldilocks quality: too many and you will indeed suffocate in stale thinking, too few and you risk a rambling vision quest. The key to spurring creativity isn't the removal of all constraints. Ideally you should impose only those constraints (beyond the truly non-negotiable ones) that move you toward clarity of purpose.If a constraint enhances your understanding of the problem scope and why you're doing what you're doing, leave it in. Insights into user needs, for example, are great because they provide focus and rationale. If the constraint confuses or overly narrows scope without good reason, remove or replace it. Don't be afraid to experiment with different combinations of constraints; it's not always easy to tell ahead of time what the right mix will be for a particular project or circumstance.Here are some tips on how to build constraints that compel learner’s creativity:Ask or post the right questions in your modules. Target the learner’s blindside. Post unexpected questions that are not answered by yes or no. Use hyperlinks and links in your lessons. Let you eLearners navigate through other knowledge references. Present contradictory ideas and compel your students to take a stand. Opposing views fuel discussion. Collaborative learning is attained when there are clashes of ideas and concepts. Do not feed your students with your conclusions or recommendations. Guide them through but do not dictate as to how the learning should be concluded. Provide a feedback mechanism so that you can challenge the answers or conclusions of the elearners. Whenever possible, use learning games. This can make learning entertaining. Related BlogsAre Trainers Still Needed?Are you guilty of interrupting the learners learning?Reference: Boosting Creativity Through Constraints by Adam RichardsonRay Jimenez, PhD Vignettes Learning Learn more about story and experience-based eLearning

Our belief: At Vignettes Learning we use stories in eLearning; however, we make them interactive. The emphasis is getting learners involved in the story and not just telling the learners the story. Synthesis.Avatars are not only novelties or catchy web accessories. They provide web users with a third-person perspective of themselves. Avatars help us project ourselves during web interactivity. Recent studies show that the third-person perspective has more advance uses in eLearning and interaction.Image Source I chanced upon an EA Sports website, a gaming portal that enables players to ‘paste’ their head shots onto the body of the player of their choice. The feature is called Game Face. It gives this alluring welcome to the players: Create your EA sports avatar on the web and get to play as yourself in the games!I am not into gaming but I like the concept of personification: the users "see themselves" in the interactive zone they are engaged in. Perhaps, people tend to become more efficient in interactive games when they see themselves in it. The survival instinct kicks in: they don’t want to see their avatar lose or die right before their very eyes.As eLearning facilitators, we make it a point to require elearners to post their photos or avatars during interactive sessions. The chat room and online forum become more ‘personified’ during virtual lessons through the photos or avatars of fellow learners. An article published in the Harvard Business Review describes a breakthrough research that takes the avatar concept technology a hundred notches higher. In You Make Better Decisions If You "See" Your Senior Self, Hal Hershfield writes:"There’s a large body of literature showing that emotional responses are heightened when you give people vivid examples: Donors give more to charity when they hear from a victim; pulmonologists smoke less than other doctors because they see dirty lungs all day. So I partnered with Daniel Goldstein of Microsoft Research, Jeremy Bailenson of Stanford, and several other Stanford researchers see if giving people vivid images of their older selves would change their spending and saving preferences. We took photos of our subjects and used software to create digital avatars—half of which were aged with jowls, bags under the eyes, and gray hair. Wearing goggles and sensors, participants explored a virtual environment and came with a mirror that reflected either their current-self or future-self avatar. Afterward, we asked them to allocate $1,000 among four options—buying something nice for someone special, investing in a retirement fund, planning a fun event, or putting money into a checking account. Subjects exposed to aged avatars put nearly twice as much money into the retirement fund as the other people. Later we had some people see the older avatars of other subjects to test if that affected their choices, but it didn’t. Only those who saw their own future selves were more likely to favor long-term rewards."So, how do we apply the basic concepts of the third-person perspective in elearning design? How can we induce our elearners to "age or become more mature" in their responses? The correct and efficient use of avatars in story-based eLearning design is only part of the whole approach. To create the appropriate learning environment, designers should set a good storyline, an apt setting and a realistic script. Create the right tension and draw them into the scenario. Trust the learners and implement your lessons with the disposition that they can rise to the level of the challenge. In short, treat them as adults who are capable of being creative and responsive no matter how difficult your lessons may seem. Pace your lessons well so that learners have enough time to think, react and assess their response. We are recreating real-life scenarios. As such, there are emotions and reactions involved. While we try to draw out the spontaneous reaction from learners, it is also as important to give them space to process their own learning . The results of the above-mentioned research could be further applied to elearning development. I foresee that this third-person concept is applicable to value-based and ethics-centered lessons for NGOs, socio-civic organizations and churches. Indeed, the elearning universe is expanding because of the changing needs of global communities. Related BlogsThe Dream of Personalization - Far fetch but PossibleDesigning eLearning for Martians and Other Aliens Reference  You Make Better Decisions If You "See" Your Senior Self by Hal HershfieldRay Jimenez, PhD Vignettes Learning Learn more about story and experience-based eLearning

Our belief: At Vignettes Learning we use stories in eLearning; however, we make them interactive. The emphasis is getting learners involved in the story and not just telling the learners the story.Synthesis: Accessibility to massive content  in this Digital Information Age can be overwhelming and sidetrack even those with the best intentions. It is therefore important that designers focus on the intended context of their lessons rather than allow themselves to be distracted by too much information during elearning development.  Minimizing  content to its essentials  can be an effective way to accelerate eLearning.  It allows  context to float to the surface like oil over water. Image SourceWell developed elearning programs put premium on embedding context rather than just provding content. A critical step to achieving this is distinguishing content that learners need to know or must know. It is lean yet significant. Otherwise, it does not create the intended learning impact. As we apply the approach to creating micro-lessons with the embedded context, learners are drawn to discover it and enables them to glean the critical knowledge and retain it more easily.The quality of content and the process by which we synthesize content are factors that affect learning. Content that simply  overloads our minds and makes learning incomprehensible can even  lead to confusion. In this light, context takes precedence over content. In my blog Context is King, I wrote:"With the massive information and content growth and the speed of information change, the next generation challenge is not content but rather how to make sense, how to discover and how to apply the ideas from the content. In essence, how to find the context becomes more important. This is known as Contextual Learning - a learning that connects content with what the learners already know and benefit from its immediate usefulness. It is not the amount of information that we provide learners that is important. It is what is meaningful and immediately useful to impact their performance."Here are points to ponder for elearning designers:• Content development doesn’t work like a piggy bank. Storing too much information in one single lesson weakens the learning framework. If you keep on dumping content without providing the process on how to weave everything into one symbiotic modality, your lesson becomes good for nothing.• Context focuses on micro-lessons that lead to rapid learning. Uncovering  a single lesson from one page is more practical than unearthing  multiple lessons from  a whole book. • Contextual learning limits the scope of the lesson but it does not mean that the learner  has lesser learning. • Context enables designers to focus only on what is relevant and disregards novelty and unnecessary  information embellishments that do not contribute to the eLearning structure.In his article  4 Weapons of Exceptional  Creative Leaders, Charles Day wrote:"The context gives us the ability to say no with confidence.Great leaders are not necessarily braver leaders. They’re just better informed about the consequences of their choices, which makes it easier for them to make the hard ones. The result is they are able to keep their companies focused.When Steve Jobs returned to Apple in 1997 as its CEO, he began saying no to virtually every request by Apple’s developers. He understood that saying yes was a distraction from where he knew he needed to take the company and having context gave him the confidence to stand by his convictions.Many leaders fear saying no and see it as limiting. But more often than not, it’s the right answer when you’re clear about where you’re headed and are in a hurry to get there. Context requires that you build from the future back. Once you know where you’re headed, the decision whether to turn left or right at any given fork becomes increasingly clear. Context is only relevant if it’s based on current information. Because the world is changing in real time, exceptional leaders actively welcome disruptive thinking."What is said about contextual leadership can also be applied in contextual elearning development.   Designers who are keen on contextual learning safeguards their lessons by saying "no" to: • Information overload that defocuses the learner from the heart of the lessons • Bland, boring and conventional designs that fail to challenge the creativity and rationality of the learners • Knowledge spoon-feeding that induces procrastination rather than participationRelated BlogsContext is KingConstraints Compel eLearner to be CreativeReferences4 Weapons ofExceptional  Creative Leaders by Charles DayRay Jimenez, PhD Vignettes Learning Learn more about story and experience-based eLearning

Our belief: At Vignettes Learning we use stories in eLearning; however, we make them interactive. The emphasis is getting learners involved in the story and not just telling the learners the story.Synthesis. eLearning content should be a collaboration between the client and the instructional designer and developer. Without the collaborative process, it is more difficult to produce effective and impactful elearning design. This is the reason why training needs analysis is important in elearning development. The first question a developer should ask the client is: what do you want to learn?Recently, Ikea launched an ingenuously designed shelter for refugees. In his article, A New Ingeniously Designed Shelter For Refugees—Made By Ikea, Shane Snow writes:"The Ikea Foundation (which has invested approximately 3.4 million euros in the project so far) and UNHCR will beta test the shelters in Ethiopia next month, then iterate to a final design for mass production. They currently cost $10,000 to make, but they’re hoping to get that price down to less than $1,000 when they’re in mass production. The tents cost half that, but they hope to have the cost even out, given the long life of the shelters."The same article cites that these innovative shelters are twice as large as the old-school refugee tent. They measure 17.5 square meters, take four hours to assemble and designed to last 10 times longer than the conventional ones. Take a look at the Ikea tent here.Putting on my designer’s hat, I became fully aware of the amount of research, situational-needs analysis, behavioral study and technical preparations Ikea designers went through to produce the innovative refugee shelters. The design is objective and end-user specific: for refugees.The process of developing the elearning design is similar to the design approach of the said tent. Just as the blueprint of the tent was based on the needs of the refugees, the development of elearning modalities should consider the assessed requisites of the learners. In this sense, a needs analysis is a vital step. A shotgun approach will not achieve learning goals especially in the development of the elearning design. The next key step would be the presentation and discussion of results with client. Here lies the opportunity for a collaborative approach between designer /developer and the organization’s elearning stakeholders.In my years as an eLearning developer, I am convinced with certainty that the most effective and impactful lessons are those co-designed by the client. Co-design in this respect means that the client spent collaborative sessions with the developer to analyze the needs of the organization.Entities subscribed to elearning, participate in the development of lessons. After all, the principals have better knowledge of its members than the developers. Collaborative elearning development produces contextual lessons that hit the bull’s eye.In my book 3-Minute Learning, I pointed out one of the common pitfalls in eLearning course development: designing and developing e-Learning programs without understanding the principles of elearning behaviors and the nature of internet technologies.Based on the above fact, I cite these guide points for both the developers and elearning principals:Learning needs analysis should be implemented with a critical mind. The principal should disclose relevant data and information that could help designers come up with an objective-specific lesson. Designers should be given the general background of the elearners. Prior knowledge of the contextual situation of the organization would definitely help designers customize an appropriate eLearning design. Principals should inform the designers about the strengths and weaknesses of the organization in relation to the lesson being designed. This way, the designers and developers are able to build the learning parameters. Learning results should be quantifiable and measurable. Keep in mind that the behavior of learners in an elearing environment is different. Virtual classroom solicits a different attitude and disposition from the learners. What works in a conventional learning environment would not necessarily apply in a virtual class. Conduct a Beta test of the virtual lessons and invest time in implementing trial runs to recognize the flaws and defects of the conceptual and technical elements of the design. Allow the principals and the learners to evaluate the elearning design. Record and keep the evaluation results. Knowledge benchmarks are necessary for the next phase of the elearning development. Related blogsAccelerating eLearning by Focusing on ContextSurgical Insertion of Micro-Scenarios that Beautify and Fire Up Your eLearningReferenceA New Ingeniously Designed Shelter For Refugees—Made By Ikea, Shane SnowRay Jimenez, PhD Vignettes Learning Learn more about story and experience-based eLearning

Our belief: At Vignettes Learning we use stories in eLearning; however, we make them interactive. The emphasis is getting learners involved in the story and not just telling the learners the story.Synthesis. An iconic TV series is used as a model for creating an open-ended ending for story-based elearning design. Such an approach creates cycles of continuous learning because the lesson becomes collaborative. As the learners attempt to put an ending to an unconcluded story, different insights contribute to the development of the lesson.Image source.American actor James Gandolfini passed away last June 19, 2013. He played the iconic role of Tony Soprano in the HBO TV hit series The Sopranos. As the mob boss of a ruthless and dysfunctional crime family syndicate in New Jersey, Gandolfini was critically acclaimed for his intensity and realistic portrayal of the role.The Sopranos are considered as the greatest television series of all time. It has won a multitude of awards, including back-to-back Peabody Awards for its first two seasons, twenty-one Emmy Awards and five Golden Globe Awards. In 2013, the Writers Guild of America named it the best-written series in television history. (Wikipedia).What impressed me most about the Sopranos was the manner the scriptwriters ended the series. The interpretation and meaning of the Sopranos’"final scene" is still being debated today, six years after the last episode was aired.The final scene showed the Soprano family about to have a family dinner in a diner. The camera pans through different frames suggesting that an assassin could show up and ‘whack’ the crime boss in front of his family. As tension builds up, the camera gives a close-up of Tony Soprano’s face, looking at someone who just entered the diner. Then, blackout. The credits followed without any annotation or epilogue. Watch the Sopranos’ final scene here. The ending has spurred hundreds - if not thousands - of blogs, articles and feature writing, explaining their point of view or interpretation of the ending. The Sopranos’ finale is a clear example of what we story-based elearning designers aim to achieve in their elearning modules. After hooking the learners with a well-written and engaging story, the open-ended ending allow the viewers decide how to end their story.In the same manner, a story-based elearning lesson solicits innumerable lessons, insights, interaction and reaction among the learners. Unlike conventional learning where there have been always a ‘right or wrong’, the story-based elearning lesson probes deeper into the emotional and intellectual faculties of the learners. The learning becomes collaborative because of the interaction and feedback. Here are some guidelines on how to create a story-based elearning lesson with an impactful open ending:The beginning and body of the story should be engaging. It should move the learners to commit to the story. It should be compelling enough to make them deeply concerned about how the story would end. If the developer could not feel the tension and conflict of his or her SBL design, I am 100% certain that the learners would not experience it also. Without character identification, the story-based elearning lesson fails to connect with the learner. Without such connection, the whole learning framework falls apart. Everybody is basically going through the same thing every day: joy, happiness, enthusiasm, sadness, tension, anxiety, disappointment and fatigue, among others. Human emotions are the easiest to recreate and project. Reflect and ask: is this story-based elearning lesson projecting an authentic experience? I close by quoting an excerpt from my book Scenario-Based Learning Using Stories To Engage e-Learners:"Many of us in the business of teaching, learning and training believe it is our role to engage learners. We become frustrated during these occasions when we can’t achieve this. We can only set the stage for learners to become engaged themselves. There’s a difference. Learners are perpetually engaged by their own stories. They complete their own stories, their bucket lists. Trainers and designers merely help by facilitating the process. The power of SBLs is to allow learners to complete their stories and discover the embedded learning ideas, not to force them to participate in stories that don’t resonate. They may go through the motions, but they won’t be engaged."Story-based elearning design creates a never-ending story that draws reactions, perspective and insight long after the last scene ended.Related BlogsCreating Learning Peaks with ScenariosPut the elements of viral videos in eLearning story designReferencesScenario-Based Learning Using Stories To Engage e-Learners by Raymundo Jimenez, PhD. The Sopranos, WikepediaRay Jimenez, PhD Vignettes Learning Learn more about story and experience-based eLearning