hendrich

Learning Design That Makes You Shine

/ Susan Hendrich / 4 Comments

Tonight I read an online article that stopped me in my tracks. Rather than try to capture the essence of author Barbara Findlay Schenck’s brilliance by recapitulating it in my own words, I’m just going to re-publish the article.

It’s that good.

First, I’ll share my 6-word elevator speech with you: “Learning Design That Makes You Shine.” Now, on to the good stuff, then it’s your turn…

Want a Loan? A Sale? A Job?
By Barbara Findlay Schenck

When Brad Newman introduced himself as an actrepreneur, I was hooked. Everything about his title told me he had information I wanted to hear. Over a few additional seconds, I learned that this actor and entrepreneur is the founder of Zentainment, “a socially conscious media company committed to growing brands that encourage you to dream big and live a sustainable life.” From there, a longer conversation and a business relationship followed, all spurred by an attention-getting introduction that took just moments to deliver.

The elevator pitch rides into the speed-dating era
Today’s economic environment has turned job fairs, trade shows, networking events and even sidewalk sales into buyers’ markets where only those with quick, compelling pitches survive.

In the 1990s, high-tech entrepreneurs named these short spiels “elevator pitches” because they could be conveyed during an elevator ride. The tech bubble ballooned and burst (and ballooned again), but elevator pitches are here to stay. Everyone whether seeking employment, sales or profitable business associations needs one.

Is your introduction ready to roll?
“So, what do you do?”

Those five words are on the minds of everyone you meet, whether in person or online. Brad Newman’s introduction helps provide a formula that can assist you in preparing your answer and attracting attention from those you aim to impress:

Describe yourself in five words or less. Use a distinctive title or phrase that makes people think, “This sounds interesting” or “This is what I’m looking for.” Consider the difference between “I’m a copywriter” and “I turn browsers into buyers.” Or, in Newman’s case, between “social media entrepreneur” and “actrepreneur.”

Explain what you do in one sentence. After introducing yourself, introduce your offerings. “Our name combines the words Zen and entertainment, which stakes out our media space,” Newman says. “We’re a media company that focuses on socially conscious content. That definition tells what Zentainment is and rules out what it isn’t.” Work on a similarly specific description for your business.

Define your target audience. “Our market is comprised of 30- to 49-year-olds who care about socially conscious living,” Newman says. “By defining our market in that way, people immediately know whether our business is for them.” In other words, Zentainment isn’t trying to be all things to all people. It’s focused on a specific target audience, which is a key to success in today’s crowded business environment.

Communicate your vision. “We’re committed to growing brands that encourage you to dream big and live a sustainable life, whether they’re our own brands or ones for which we consult and serve as producers,” Newman says. “Our vision is clear enough to keep us focused and broad enough to make us adaptive to the opportunities of a changing market and media world.” It’s also compelling enough to attract a growing contingent of Zentainment consumers and business clients. What does your business stand for? What attracts your customers and their loyalty? Your answers can serve as a magnet for growth.

Practice, practice, practice. Create a script that conveys who you are, what you offer, your market, and the distinctive benefits you provide. Edit until you can introduce yourself and your business in less than a minute, which is how long most prospects will give you to win their interest.

Shrink your introduction even further so you can tell your story in 20 words or less. That’s how much space you have in most marketing materials and online presentations, whether on your own site, on social media sites, or on sites that link to your home page. If you’re thinking, “Twenty words? You’ve got to be kidding,” scroll back to the start of this column. That’s exactly what Brad Newman used to get my interest.

Barbara Findlay Schenck is a small-business strategist, the author of “Small Business Marketing for Dummies” and the co-author of “Branding for Dummies,” “Selling Your Business for Dummies” and “Business Plans Kit for Dummies.”

15 minutes of Leading Change

/ Susan Hendrich / 1 Comment

Leading Change: We All Play A Role

Anyone who has ever worked for, worked with, or been a leader knows the importance of leading change.

Let’s take a few moments to reflect on ways that you and your colleagues have led change for your teams, your customers, each other, and the organization. Here’s a quick team-building exercise you can do at your next staff meeting to orient your team toward the leadership moments – big and small – that people in your group are causing. It’s a quick and high-impact way of generating examples of how you and your colleagues have noticed each other leading change.

“Recognizing Leadership” Activity Instructions

1. Create

Provide everyone a piece of paper with their own name on it. Instruct the group to pass their individual sheets to the person to on their left, allowing that neighbor to record an example of how they have witnessed you leading change. Group members continue to pass the sheets around the room, allowing colleagues to add a comment on a way they’ve noticed the each individual leading change.

2. Share

Once everyone has had a chance to write on each of the sheets of paper, collect all of the sheets and redistribute them so that everyone receives someone else’s sheet.  Each person takes a turn reading out loud one or two examples that are recorded on their partner’s sheet.

3. Deliver

After everyone has had an example or two read about themselves, return the sheets to their owners to keep. Encourage everyone to review their own sheet for themes, asking themselves, “Which leadership capabilities do people seem to notice?” and “What are areas might I continue to develop?”

I’d love to hear how your exercise goes. Please share your stories…

Globalize your On Demand Business

/ Susan Hendrich / 2 Comments

Check out these excellent writing tips from IBM on how to “Globalize your On Demand Business” 

Style tips

The following style suggestions can help ensure your information is clear for all types of audiences:

  • Write sentences as short and simple as possible. Try to keep sentences to 25 words or less.
  • Make sure that lists are complete and can stand by themselves.
  • Use a complete sentence to introduce a list.
  • Make list items complete sentences or complete phrases.
  • Make list items parallel in structure.
  • Avoid slang, jargon, humor, sarcasm, colloquialisms, and metaphors. For example, use “estimate” instead of “in the ballpark.”
  • Be succinct. Eliminate unnecessary text and redundancies.
  • Do not use Latin abbreviations.
  • Avoid negative constructions. For example, use “It is like the previous request” rather than “It is not unlike the previous request.” Or, use “Log on again to reconnect” instead of “You cannot reconnect without logging on again.”
  • Avoid ambiguity.
  • Use an appropriate and consistent tone.
  • Choose examples that are appropriate for the intended audience.

Grammar tips

Appropriate grammar enables easier, more accurate translations and enhances audience understanding:

  • Write in active voice whenever possible and use the present tense.
  • Avoid the infinitive (to create), present participle (creating), and past participle (created) forms of verbs in the beginning of sentences. These verbs are less direct, and the subject of the clause is not always obvious. Completing steps could mean “When you complete the steps” or “Because you complete the steps.”
  • Avoid noun strings. Limit compound phrases to no more than three words. When a compound phrase is used, be sure that it has only one meaning and that the phrase is used consistently.
  • Make the subject of a verb phrase clear. Avoid complex sentences where several adverbs or other modifiers are used. If you use complex sentences, it is particularly important to include whatever words are necessary to make the subject clear. Do not omit the word “that” from clauses. The use of the conjunction “that,” while technically optional in some sentences, is never wrong and makes the sentence easier to translate and clearer for users whose primary language is not English. For example, use “Verify that your directory service is working” rather than “Verify your directory service is working.”
  • Avoid using words in multiple grammatical categories (verb, noun, adjective). In English, many words can change their grammatical category. In most other languages, the same word cannot be a verb, a noun, and an adjective. (Use “during the restore operation” instead of “during the restore.”)
  • Avoid ambiguous pronoun references where the pronoun can possibly refer to more than one antecedent. For example, in the statement “If there is prompt text for the completed field, it does not change,” it is not clear if the “prompt text” does not change or the “completed field” does not change.
  • Use simple and clear coordination so the reader can tell what the relationships are between the elements of a sentence. For example, “the file or result field definition” could mean: “The result-field definition or the file,” “The file definition or the result-field definition,” “The file-field definition or the result-field definition,” “The definition of the file or of the result field,” or “The field definition of the file or of the result.”
  • Ensure the elements of a sentence are parallel. Words, phrases, and clauses should be grammatically equal. Use “network management, databases, and application programs” rather than “network management, databases, and writing application programs.”
  • Avoid using too many prepositions in a sentence, but do not omit prepositions or articles that are necessary. The sentence “This is a list of the current status of all event monitors for this process” could be rewritten to “This lists the current status of all event monitors for this process.”
  • Do not use the dash parenthetically (as in “It is at this point – the start point – that designers and writers meet”). Translators, however, accept the dash being used to show an extension of a sentence (as in “The most important people in IBM are the customers – they pay us”).

Creative Slump? Try Something, Anything New

/ Susan Hendrich / 3 Comments

Creative Slump? Try Something, Anything New

The Slump

As Spring 2010 settled in, I found myself in a creative rut. Not that I wasn’t coming up with some pretty good instructional design solutions. I just didn’t have the sparkly “kick” in my design step.

My first instinct in considering how to clear the innovation fog was to focus on learning something new about instructional design. “Surely there is some new technique or method out there that will inspire me back into my creative groove,” I told myself. Four hours of semi-conscious web surfing for articles on social networking, blogging, graphic design, and adult learning later, I was in no better creative place than when I first started this aimless journey.

“A good night’s sleep will do the trick,” I murmured to myself in lieu of clicking the Facebook link one last time before throwing the creative towel. Another half hour passed, and while I now was up to speed on my Facebook friends’ opinions on skirt lengths, parasailing, potty training, and bar hopping, I was no closer to sleep than to a creative revelation.

Defeated, I dragged myself to bed.

The Surge

Disarmed of my intellectual shortcomings by the start of my semi-conscious snooze, it came to me…

“Cake Pops!”

No, this was not some animated .gif I would create for a PowerPoint presentation. Nor was it a racy idea for an attention grabber at the beginning of a module. I had realized that my creative sparkle could be restored through an age-old domestic act. Baking.

I recalled seeing some Martha Stewart-y web article on “Cake Pops,” which showed fun bite-sized cake creatures perched firmly on a lollipop stick. “I’ll try it! Should be a piece of cake,” I chuckled to no one in particular, mildly amused by the metaphoric ease of my belief that the creation of these mini-masterpieces could be mastered in a single shot.

So, 67 dollars and one maddening pre-Easter Michael’s trip later, I had everything I needed to make cake pops. Or at least that’s what the “easy cake pop instructions” recipe at Bakerella.com promised. What then ensued can only be described as a tortuous 12 hours of mixing, scraping, baking, shaping, smooshing, poking, and re-attaching nightmare. I kind of loved it, even though at one point I threw an unfrosted cake ball (a pre-cake pop iteration) against my refrigerator in disgust.

My first cake pops were disasterously, unmanageably bad. Think of ABC gum smashed under an old shoe, then jammed with two jelly beans and told to stand up straight and look presentable. Yuck.

Two batches later, the sugared semi-orbs actually started to look like they were intended to look – bunnies and chicks. I was getting my groove now. The bunnies were pink with googly eyes and the beaks of the chicks looked as cute as they did real. Almost unnoticeably, I began putting my own twist on the not-nearly-as-easy-as-they-promised recipe instructions.

Here’s a view of the final products:

Hendrich's Cake Pops

After the final bunny was built and the last chick was cast, I was both mentally exhausted and creatively invigorated. After saran wrapping the last of the munchable art, I flopped into bed and was asleep in seconds.

Getting out of my comfort zone for those 12 hours initiated a creative flow over the next week at work that shocked me. I was in the groove, coming up with innovative and simpler ways of training my customers. But what perhaps is even more exciting is the fact that I had a renewed verve for life in general. An extra spring in my step. And an almost constant feeling that I was just about to conjure another cool idea. Not because I’d attended a webinar in my field of study. Not because I’d read a book to enhance my expertise. But because I tried something utterly new.

Moral of the story: Getting out of my comfort zone and trying something new initiated a creative flow in all areas of my life, both personal and professional. The simple (okay, not exactly simple) act of learning to do something I had never done before restored my curiosity, my creative inspiration, and even my confidence. And the learning was not in my area of expertise. In fact, prior to that day, I would not call myself a baker of any kind.

 Perhaps the old saying is true…

You can create your cake and eat it, too.

Shake it off and step up

/ Susan Hendrich / Leave a comment

Shake it off and step up 

Below is one of my favorite stories with the simplest of messages. Thank you Joseph Sica for this elegant lesson…

Once upon a time there was a farmer who had an old mule. The mule fell into a deep dry well and began to cry loudly. Hearing his mule cry, the farmer came over and assessed the situation. The well was deep and the mule was heavy. He knew it would be difficult, if not impossible, to lift the animal out.

Because the mule was old and the well was dry, the farmer decided to bury the animal in the well. In this way he could solve two problems: put the old mule out of his misery and have his well filled.

He called upon his neighbors to help him and they agreed to help. To work they went. Shovel full of dirt after shovel full of dirt began to fall on the mule’s back. He became hysterical. Then all of a sudden an idea came to the mule. Each time they would throw a shovel full of dirt on his back he could shake it off and step up. Shovel full after shovel full, the mule would shake it off and step up. Now exhausted and dirty, but quite alive, the mule stepped over the top of the well and walked through the crowd.

A great attitude. A great way to approach life. Shake it off and step up. Too often we hold on to what has happened to us.

We hold on to it for a week, a month, even years. We cannot shake it loose from our memory. It eats away at us and steals our joy, happiness and peace of mind. The past hurt can create feelings of bitterness, resentment, anger and revenge.

We keep allowing these emotions to be thrown on our backs and if we do nothing, we will be buried deep in the well. Walls will be built in our relationships. We will avoid each other and the cold war begins.

 But, we have a choice: keep it inside and embrace the hurt or shake it off and step up. Give it a try. Shake it off and step up. Words that have been said or actions that have been done, shake it off and step up. Let it go. Whatever it is: a rude comment, a past mistake, being ignored, we can stew over it all week. It occupies us all the time.

Too often we nurse hurts, we keep them alive inside and go over them time and time again; not only stewing from them, but now chewing them over and over until it gets us sick. Too often we rehearse hurts, tell everyone what has happened to us.

The cure is to accept what has happened, try to make sense out of it, learn from it, then shake it off and step up. When you let it go you feel free and you are no longer buried in the well. Once you are on your feet again you can take some action. You decide where you want to grow in life, the direction you want your life to take. You decide whether you will allow the hurt to make you a bitter or a better person. Learn from it. Emerge stronger.

THAT’S LIFE! If we face our problems and respond to them positively, and refuse to give in to panic, bitterness, or self-pity…The adversities that come along to bury us usually have within them the potential to benefit and bless us.