Organizational Development related post: MTBI and possible usage in the workplace.

During an Organizational Development class, it was asked about our take on the Meyer Briggs test within a corporate environment and during the class we needed to interact via an online discussion. Every once in a while, we have to pose questions to one another, in this post I have posted the question and my response to that question. I hope the interactions below assist in research, or even understanding the concepts of MTBI and what from some academic sense future practitioners think of these concepts and the arenas it can be used in.

Question: I have been an avid reader and fan of Carl Jung 's work. Over the years I have taken the Meyers-Briggs Test to satisfy my own personal curiosity and consistently I have been typed as INFJ.  I took the test recently and my result was personality type ENFJ. I attribute the change to work experiences that have forced me to be more extroverted. Do you think that an individual's personality type can change? Do you think the personalities of individuals can be adaptable to a workplace environment? How does the MBTI compare to other personality assessment tests administered to employees in the workplace?

It has been my experience that people do change aspects of their individual personality that they exhibit in the workplace. It is what I like to call a “workplace mask” in which individuals adapt (as you stated) or change their attitudes and responses to match certain instances or events. Usually I see this change in attitude is evident when managers or onsite directors are visited by out-of-town CEOs or COOs, they become positive and outgoing trying to interact with their employees, when otherwise they try to avoid those same employees at all costs.

To answer your question about administering personality tests at an organization, it has also been my experience that the organizations are not interested, whatsoever for understanding employee personality types. Organizations are more concerned for conformity to the culture that is present within the workplace, and any personality traits one exhibits that run counter to that culture must be eliminated or suppressed. A personality assessment test like MTBI is unfortunately not even on the radar for organizations like this.

Organizational Clarity: Human Performance Improvement -Pre-Project Situation Description

For one assignment in Human Performance Improvement class I was given the assignment to adjust and improve the workplace for a fictional organization while improving the environment for all the stakeholders involved. This is a fictional account with the variables listed in an assignment and the parameters dealt with worse case scenario type issues in an organization so therefore with the idea of unlimited budgets and resources (I know when does that happens?) this assignment was crafted with those variables in mind. Please post any comments or questions to facilitate a discussion in the comments sections below.

Pre-Project Situation Description
Purpose
Omir University is a multimillion dollar organization that is a for-profit institution which provides an online education to a host of students. In fact, the University prides itself on accepting individuals from all demographics and all walks of life. Their objective is providing students with a quality online education to help them succeed in their future careers. To belay scrutiny of its for-profit status in the educational field, Omir University as an accredited institution focuses upon a positive student experience to prove their claims of providing students with a quality education. This is done not only through the academic side but also the administrative side. The student experience determines the overall reputation of the University. Therefore, ensuring students are highly satisfied with all interactions (staff and/or management) are imperative.

To determine how well the various departments of Admissions, Financial Aid, and Academics performs, the students are asked to complete a brief survey after every phone call, email, and chat; each interaction even the lack thereof is given a percentage score by students. This determines the foundation of how Omir University determines their performance goals, not only on a quarterly basis but monthly as well.

Even with a student body of 35,000 students and sites nationwide, Omir University does have the ability to zero in with a laser focus on how to improve their quality scores. Omir University divides each department up separately and then breaks down the scores by the teams assigned to each communication method or queue. The passing grade for all departments in these three various methods of communication (phone, email, and chat) is at 90%.

Statement of the Need or Opportunity
Every department and team have a 90% passing grade from the student reviews, except the Financial Aid email team. Their scores are significantly lower because student surveys state they have emailed Financial aid and after brief interactions, have not received any additional responses to resolve their issue.

In some cases, students stated they have not received responses to initial inquiries at all. In either instance, this results in a failing grade for the Financial Aid email team, bringing down their overall scores for the month and quarter to 63%. As a result, these students have also increased the communication “traffic” of the other three major departments I have aforementioned. This increase in traffic gives the students what they believe is the “runaround” and in turn decreases the customer service scores of these other teams and departments. The Financial Aid email team’s backlog is basically affecting the organization and is causing students (who are their customers) to seek educational opportunities elsewhere.

Work Environment
The Work Environment in regards to customer service (the focus of the intervention) is segmented into three departments (Admissions, Financial Aid, and Academics).  It is then divided further with the way information is communicated to the student (phone, online chat, and email).
The entire Financial Aid Email team is in Omir University’s Chicago downtown location; resources needed will be limited. All training sessions can be held in the sixth-floor conference room without additional set up.

The University rents three floors of the office building and the Financial Aid Email team is situated upon the fifth floor segmented from the rest of the Financial Aid team (which is on the sixth floor); this allows assignment of training sessions easier to accomplish.
The team is responsible for all the University’s communication with students regarding their Financial Aid inquiries there are presently no backup systems or procedures in place. The team seating arrangement has a basic six “block” cubical arraignment which physically adds to the “bubble” effect or segregation that the team has developed (from the rest of the department and organization).

The competition between departments and the teams that they are divided into, within the organization is very competitive. Therefore, getting support or creating additional avenues to “attack” the email backlog and improve customer service scores for the team and the organization is also a significant challenge. The result of these office politics has made the employees of the email team embroiled or committed to old procedures and policies and creates as a byproduct, the current 63% customer service approval rating. Additionally, any “outside” help or procedural mandates either from other parts of the Financial Aid department (onsite management) or outside of the organization is met with skepticism.

Target Audience
The target audience consists of:

• The Financial Aid email team,
• Financial Aid Managers,
• Financial Aid team leads,
• Associate Financial Aid (onsite) director, and the
• Financial Aid (onsite) director.

These individuals are the main and direct focus of the HPI intervention as the entire organization is affected by the scores (of the Financial Aid email team).

Resources required
Resources for this intervention are:

• One conference room that seats ten to thirteen individuals for two days,
• Thirteen laptops with online access,
• One overhead projector,
• One hundred active emails/files for training purposes,
• Paper (printed) handouts,
• Five boxes of pens, and
• Thirteen notepads.

The groups will be divided into shifts as the entire ten-person team cannot be scheduled for the training sessions all at one time. Therefore, only half of the team will be scheduled between 8 am to 12 pm (half day sessions). Limited supplies and space to conduct training sessions will be used to keep costs down and maximize ROI. The entire cost will be minimal as the materials needed are already onsite and available for usage by the entire team, management staff, and consultant.

Sponsor(s)
The sponsors are:

• Financial Aid director,
• Vice President of Financial Aid, and
• HPI4TC consultant Martin Prosser.

Having the management team involved as well as the onsite directors will ensure a better understanding (and the seriousness) of these changes and the training sessions. This will also help in fostering an inclusive team atmosphere between these once-divided groups. By including onsite management will also help these individuals properly understand daily operations and the step by step methodology of daily task completion from the email team’s point of view. This way any future changes to performance-based procedures and policies will be based upon realistic expectations of processes that can be truly achieved.  This will also reassure the team that management is fully committed and involved in their processes and professional development.

Performance Improvement Goal
As previously stated the Performance goal that the Financial Aid email team must reach is a 90% approval rating on the surveys given to students after every interaction with the team.
The email backlog is tallied to be at least 5,000 emails. It is unrealistic to complete and respond to these emails within a months’ time. Figuring in that each team member will need to complete only 25 of these emails daily for a month to catch up, there are still an influx of email communications coming in daily (at least 75 emails per day). Plus, there are about 1,000 emails that are simply lost or not responded to bringing down the team’s performance scores even more.

As the team is inconsistent the goals are to have each team member complete at least 30 email responses per day, (completing most of the backlog before the end of the month by at least 75%). The training sessions will be covering new procedures and new email templates to maximize the time spent on each email response and cover the amount of detail needed to satisfy each student.
Management will assist the email team with “weeding out” additional or multiple responses (i.e.: email chains) from the same student regarding the same issue that was previously responded to beforehand (an “additional email elimination” process). For example, if a student has previously contacted a Financial email representative regarding the date of their stipend and this question has been answered, only to have the student respond with a “thanks” the lack of response by the representative was usually counted as a “missing” response and counted against the team.

Now, with the new procedures after the initial conclusion of that interaction that “missing” response will not be factored into the representative and team’s overall customer service score as a “non-response”. By weeding out emails that do not need additional responses we believe we will reduce the backlog by at least 178-200 emails increasing the possibility of successful implementation of this program. With this Performance improvement goal in place, it is projected to bring the scores above the 90% requirement.

Measures of Success

• We are projecting that the Financial Aid email team will reach a customer service approval percentage score of the 90% or better by the next month and by the next quarterly report. This will alleviate the issues that affect the organization and improve relations within the Financial Aid department and organization with the immediate turnaround.
• The introduction of new streamlined processes and new email templates will cut down on the time and resources expended by each team member per response. But, increase productivity to meet the required daily email completion quota, that will reduce the email backlog which presently challenges the team.
• With the introduction of new email templates, streamlined processes (including “additional email elimination”), additional structure fixated on the daily goals instead of monthly goals, increased involvement and partnerships with onsite management there will be an increase of accountability. This will help the Financial Aid email team to forge better relationships with their management staff and the rest of their department. The result of this action will be a more integrated team which can effectively communicate (with internal/external customers), be able to adopt new methods to increase its problem-solving skills, and understand how achieving its goals benefits them and the rest of the organization.
• The impact of improving this team’s customer service skills, will alleviate the students (the customers) concerns about their interactions with this specific part of the University and attending a for-profit University overall. Increasing the status of Omir University’s reputation on the administrative side amongst its student population will decrease the possibility of negative public scrutiny in various media outlets.
• An increase of employee morale (non-tangible) and a decrease of employee turnover for this small team in the Financial Aid department are also expected to occur over time as organizational goals are met.

Anticipated Roadblocks or Difficulties

• Segregating the team has a profound effect mentally as it does not realize the impact of its collective negative performance upon the rest of the department and organization overall. Getting the team to realize the impact of their performance upon the organization collectively and the individual is one challenge.
• Another challenge is getting the cooperation of the entire Financial Aid department to assist with email responses (since half of the team will be in training sessions). This resistance to help the email team is a direct response to the office politics created by the competitive organizational culture. Assistance may also be needed even after the initial training sessions of the Financial Aid email team; therefore, it may be required to cross-train members of the Financial Aid call and chat teams. However, due to conflicting responsibilities and organizational culture assigning training times to properly train assigned individuals from these teams will be another (possibly major) issue entirely.
• Having the Financial Aid email team onboard with new policies and procedures that will maximize their overall team productivity. The team is very resistant to operational changes, structure and “interference” from their management and even from the onsite directors (onsite management team).

Organizational Clarity: Personal Development Intervention

In one of my classes we discussed practicing HPI and what possible interventions one would personally choose when it comes to the workplace. Although I do not have the text connected to the blog you can still get the idea of the discussion and follow this quick entry onto one of my required discussion posts that helped me maintain my grades ha! Please post any comments or questions to facilitate a discussion in the comments sections below.

Directions: One of the most challenging aspects of HPI practice is accurately matching interventions to problems.  Chapter 9 (page 213) contains an intervention selection tool that lists a variety of interventions.  Choose at least one intervention from the list (more if you have time) and 1) Tell us when you would use the intervention AND when you would not use this intervention, 2) Provide a link to a website that either tells us more about the particular intervention or includes an example of the intervention, 3) Review the posts of fellow students and add your thoughts.

Post:
I believe I chose the Personal Development Intervention (PDI) Feedback or 360 degree (“meetings”) feedback for the assignment in the last module, so I will go with it once more. I like the idea of not critiquing an employee’s performance but telling them what they did right and giving constructive feedback on the areas or aspects in which they can improvement upon.

I can easily see when to use the PDI: Feedback during one on one training sessions or even during annual employee performance reviews. These are times or opportunities in which management or trainers are in the position to mentor employees, build morale and encourage teamwork with the organization in a positive manner. I would use this intervention only if the organizational culture fosters a positive environment however or if it is really necessary to bring certain issues or problems to light with a measure of depth and detail.

Although this intervention can be used in a group setting, if the issues concern only one member of the team or the problem must be discussed with various details I would not use this intervention. I can easy see in a group setting that focusing in too much, on a problem may cause even further divisions and problems on a team.

This is a link to a website called “What is 360 Degree Feedback?” from Custom Insight, that explains more about the Personal Development Intervention (PDI) Feedback intervention:
http://www.custominsight.com/360-degree-feedback/what-is-360-degree-feedback.asp

Organizational Clarity: LinkedIn connect with your Alma Mater part 1

Connecting with professionals and academic mentors is a key part of networking, LinkedIn is a great tool for this if you are comfortable with having a LinkedIn account. The LinkedIn account does expose you to everyone your places of employment, academic status and those within your professional circle. If you are okay with that then one suggestion I have is to link up with Professors from your Alma mater, this way now only can you give the appearance of that student who excelled in their classes so much that their professors actually like them! Ha! But also, you can reach out to them for questions regarding your degree field, mentor ship, or even possibly letters of recommendation.

This is an example of one of the messages I sent to a Professor on LinkedIn was:
“Good afternoon Professor

I was wondering if I could ask you for some advice. After graduation as I work on my job search, are there any keywords or areas I should be applying my focus in regards to organizational development?
Have a good day”

It is very basic however by sending a short message I was able to reach out, connect, and add a Professor from my Alma mater to my connections for my LinkedIn account. I was actually successful 5 times with his approach and it adds some variety to my body of connections. This is very important to have a connection list from various bodies of affiliation especially to potential employers who will then see that you an outgoing professional not just at one job or school but multiple.

And potential employers do search the internet for your LinkedIn account so building up your connection list is key. Keeping thinking variety, variety, variety and having a Professor or two from your Alma mater only adds that necessary “sparkle” to your profile, where nothing else can.

Organizational Clarity: Performance Guru

In one of my classes we were asked to find a Performance guru someone who revolutionize the industry that they were in, or made such a s huge impact that their contributions were felt on a global scale.  This is an actual entry from that class, please add any questions or points you want to share to this blog post. Please add points or possible solutions to the comments section of this blog entry.
Identify someone you admire--someone who has accomplished something that you'd like to do one day but just haven't been able to pull off. This can be a person who is well known or an unsung hero. The accomplishment should involve factors outside the realm of natural or inherent talent (for example, if you can't carry a tune, don't choose Adele) and in large part due to aspects of performance that can be managed. Tell us about your "Performance Guru" by:

Including a brief bio of this person and a link to a web resource if available
Describe why you selected this person
How this person's performance drove his/her success--add details and specifics where available
How his/her performance relates to the principles of HPT

Although, he is not my first choice, I picked Ray Kroc founder of the McDonald’s System, Inc., that and because of the movie “the Founder” which I have yet to see (The Biography.com, 2017).  Ray Kroc was not the founder of McDonald’s he was merely a milkshake machine salesman that understood the potential of the business and how to franchise it. McDonalds was actually a Barbeque restaurant founded in 1940 by Richard and Maurice McDonald, he (Kroc) merely took what they started in terms of an assembly line and standardized food portions for the product and applied this laser-like focus to everything else in the restaurant. Kroc became the president of McDonalds in 1955 to 1977 his determination engaged the people around him and underneath him (community of practice) to take McDonald’s from its humble beginnings in San Bernardino and create multimillion dollar corporation that evolved its reach to even larger global force it is today (The Biography.com, 2017).

As my third choice, I like the fact that Kroc saw the methodologies that the McDonald’s brothers had in place, and simply improved on the policies and procedures then applied that singular focus to other areas of the restaurant such as cleanliness and store design (The Biography.com, 2017). This limited the amount of investment and funding planning/decisions that each Franchisee would need to implement. The McDonald’s corporation already forecasts these practices as evident through their product portion sizes, or packaging designs, McDonald’s has with years of experience developed a formula of automation and standardization that allows it to maximize its potential and profits.

Ray Kroc used Strategic planning to direct the organization into franchisees and developed a formula which included not only the franchisees but also the organization’s suppliers; and employees. This allowed a measure of talent management that created “Hamburger University” in which he created a standardized method of management training (Mcdonalds.com, 2017). It also allowed Kroc to push the concept that individually owned franchisees although are their own, singular business, are still united under the McDonald’s organizational umbrella. With employee training, employee, career and organization development being united into one message of organizational commitment that the training at Hamburger U provides Kroc developed a successful business model that is a great example of the principles of HPT (Van Tiem, et al., 2012).

Web bio for Ray Kroc: http://www.biography.com/people/ray-kroc-9369349#synopsis
McDonald’s Web bio for Ray Kroc: https://www.mcdonalds.com/us/en-us/about-us/our-history.html

References:
The Biography.com (2017) “Ray Kroc Biography” Biography Retrieved on February 13, 2017 from: http://www.biography.com/people/ray-kroc-9369349#synopsis
Mcdonalds.com (2017) “About us: Our History” McDonalds Corporation Retrieved on February 13, 2017 from: https://www.mcdonalds.com/us/en-us/about-us/our-history.html
Van Tiem, D., Moseley, J. L., & Dessinger, J. C. (2012). Fundamentals of performance improvement: Optimizing results through people, process, and organizations. John Wiley & Sons.

HPI: Burning Questions and Takeaways

In one of my classes that dealt with HPI there were of course a thousand questions regarding the subject however you were only allowed to pick one and discuss what we learned that semester. This is an actual entry from that class, please add any questions or points you want to share to this blog post.

Part 1: Please post your "burning question" from the Module 1 group forum and the answers you found this semester. What aspects of the question are still unclear? How might you continue to learn and gain the knowledge you need after our semester ends?
Part 2: Next tell us your key take aways from our class and how you plan to apply what you have learned.

Part 1-The burning question from the Module one group was:
“One of the burning questions that I have about HPI that I hope to be able to answer is, how to gain or maintain sustainability after a successful intervention? Also another question I have, is how do you hold accountable a sponsor who is interested in a HPI one moment, then loses interests (and the HPI loses support) the next, only to be shocked when the HPI fails?”

I have not found in-depth answers for either of these questions, that I feel are valid and very important to the success of any intervention. Most of the material covered was about what is covered during the intervention, what types of tools used, how to get the sponsor to secure resources, etc., but did not go deep enough. I think that methods like RSVP, Capacity building and implementing for sustainability are great for discussion, but only answer a change in leadership as the most logical factor for a lack of sustainability, but not organizational culture as a deterrent. Even using Mosely and Hasting’s Model stage of institutionalizing it has been my experience does not work with sponsors or CEOs that have the interest in a momentary interest in a program. Even if you use standard evaluations either formative or summative, and have positive results if the sponsor is not interested in the details or wants to jump to another program altogether (that has been my experience) maintaining sustainability or making them accountable is very hard or even impossible.

One key takeaway I took from this class is from an issue I had early in the class with the differences between the Cause Analysis and Root cause analysis. As students we have the option to refer to textbooks and other students for answers. However, in a client’s case, and the advent of google if there is confusion about the difference of the tools the client might feel more empowered to research these terms themselves in order to bridge the gaps of their understanding of the process. This in turn could cause more problems for the professional than create solutions.

In fact, I would also include the issue of many individuals in management who confuse 360-degree feedback and 360 degree appraisals into this group. Knowing this I clearly need to be wary of individuals with this type of “initiative” and have ready clear definitions on hand in case of this possible scenario to set the record straight.

The other takeaway is that these interventions can definitely be used not as tool but as retaliatory options by those in management, against employees that they feel are not meeting a certain standard. Even in cases that the employee is meeting all organizational performance standards, if this employee is not meeting a certain organizational culture these positive interventions can be abused and it is up to professional to inform the sponsors in the organization to implement consequences on these individuals to ensure the success of the program’s implementation.

Organizational Clarity: Unicorn Books and Music

Okay, as an Organizational Development student (finishing in Winter 2017) it is very hard to separate “real life” from the OD realm in which constant analysis occurs. Evaluation, engagement, interaction all of this is summed up, categorized and reanalyzed with every organization or representative we meet, it is very hard to shut it off. In fact, we as professionals are usually on a constant rant about how to make things better (with an organization) that every business whether it is a large corporation or a mom and pop has the pleasure of undergoing this type of scrutiny.

The one thing that most professionals in the Organizational Development field wish to have is the chance to “see” an organization/ business as it starts out with a purely “Clean slate”. Just to get a psychological understanding of what first motivated its founders into beginning their business, to all the ins and outs of the decision process. From choosing the name to the location of the first location, these “basic building blocks” are essential to the business success, therefore, seeing or hearing it all got started firsthand, and not two to ten years later is fantastic.

There is an old friend of mine starting a Book, Collectible and Music store down in Winchester, Kentucky, the business is called Unicorn Books and Music. In Organizational Development, you maintain a standard of ethics so I could not pry too much into what was going on but, his email announcement of stating his intentions was right on the money. Plus, it allowed me the chance to ask a couple of questions while not being an OD “freak” at the same time.

The email got into the reason why he is starting the business because like most OD Professionals he had the analytic strength of observing how to run a business like this firsthand and what he would do to make it better if given a chance. Exactly, what most OD professionals are guilty of in some capacity!!!

Being a huge collectible nut myself and a friend I cannot wait to this store opens on June 10^th and hopefully, I will be able to pick his brain on the ins and outs of starting a new business and the challenges that go with it (that’s OD for you).

As with the downloads, I review what I recommend so this is the address of the new store so if you are in the area or are online you can review them as well:

Unicorn Books And Music

18 N. Main Street

Winchester, Kentucky, KY 40391

https://www.facebook.com/UnicornBooksAndMusic/

Organizational Clarity: “PowerPoint: Flashcards Template” free download

From the Articulate community dedicated to increasing a professional’s knowledge of E-Learning, giving out free tips and free resources on how to implement E-Learning in the workplace or how to easily find cheap solutions to organizational needs.

In this article: “Powerpoint: Flashcards Template” is a free download in that if you want to get more visual with your presentation. It can be a great way to illustrate your projects and presentations with that extra zip that will garner your learner’s attention and help keep them focused and alert during a lengthy or even short training session.

Just click on the link here to learn more:

https://community.articulate.com/download/powerpoint-flashcards-template

https://www.fontsquirrel.com/fonts/bree-serif

Organizational Clarity: “PowerPoint: 4 Customizable People Illustrations” free download

From the Articulate community dedicated to increasing a professional’s knowledge of E-Learning, giving out free tips and free resources on how to implement E-Learning in the workplace or how to easily find cheap solutions to organizational needs.  In this posting upon the site is “PowerPoint: 4 Customizable People Illustrations” by Ashi Tandon.

This is Professional at Articulate has posted a free download for presentation usage in Microsoft PowerPoint, you can change the look of these “people” as you desire but it’s another free tool for those of you on a budget (students, non-profits, etc.) to utilize for own heart’s desire.

Just click on the link here, and download! à https://community.articulate.com/download/powerpoint-customizable-people-illustrations

Organizational Clarity: “PowerPoint '13: Medical Research Tab” free download

From the Articulate community dedicated to increasing a professional’s knowledge of E-Learning, giving out free tips and free resources on how to implement E-Learning in the workplace or how to easily find cheap solutions to organizational needs.  In this posting upon the site is ““PowerPoint '13: Medical Research Tabs” by Trina Rimmer. 

This is Professional has posted on Articulate a free download for presentation usage in Microsoft PowerPoint, now this is more tailored for those in the medical profession, however, I like the use of tabs and it can be customized for anything. This is great in keeping the records for your client’s intervention organized or just for simple personal record keeping, the origin sites for the graphics and pictures that are used listed in the article.

Just click on the link here, have fun, download and get organized! à https://community.articulate.com/download/powerpoint-13-medical-research-tabs

Classes done for now, and a lesson in Organizational Development

Finally got done with class for the semester I do not restart until wayyyyyy far into the future. This is due to scheduling irregularities and the fact my University placed my degree programs under a Business section (wing) disrupting all of my classes. This is great material for blogs into the future because I was not told that the “switch” would disrupt my program and it almost added another term to my degree plan!

Keeping all stakeholders informed regarding any Organizational changes and how it will affect them is fundamental in Organizational Development so it is kind of funny or ironic that this is happening with this program! I nearly had my graduation date pushed back three extra months. When dealing with any organization that you invest a huge deal of time and money in like education, you really need to be on top of the people on the administrative side. Some employees feel the effects of their organization’s company culture and it can disrupt what you are trying to do as a customer.

The best thing I can advise when dealing with an organization that may disrupt your plans, whether it is scheduled completion dates to simple task activities always take it seriously, manage your time as if you will need to do double the work to complete it and get everything in writing! When you do so in Organization development you just line yourself up for success, and you also reduce the risk of wasting precious resources like time and money.

I should have some new posts up here soon with links to free downloads, Organizational Development tips and other discussions about various articles which professionals in the field have a hand in dealing with.

Organizational Clarity: “Project Charter Template” free download

From the Articulate community dedicated to increasing a professional’s knowledge of E-Learning, giving out free tips and free resources on how to implement E-Learning in the workplace or how to easily find cheap solutions to organizational needs.  In this posting upon the site is “Project Charter Template” by Maria Ginsbourg. This is Professional at Articulate has posted a free download for presentation usage in Microsoft Word.

The idea is simple it is a great way to outline for a client or other stakeholders assigned roles for the projects, the goals in which the project is trying to solve, etc., a basic template when an OD Professional is trying to give structure to the implementation while complete the entry and contracting stage to the intervention process.

Just click on the link here, and download! à https://community.articulate.com/download/project-charter-template

Organizational Clarity:"HTML5 in E-learning – Signaling the End of the Flash Player" article

From the CommlabIndia community is an article from easy, cheap solutions to meet organizational needs. In an email, I received was a link to: “HTML5 in E-learning – Signaling the End of the Flash Player” by Phani Madhav. This article talks about how the Flash player is going obsolete from Adobe to Apple almost every platform or company is trying to get away from using Flash. So, it can create major headaches when as an OD Professional or as an organization you are trying to create training programs for your employees to use at home or on various mobile devices.

While the HTML5 the latest version of tech language for the Web increases multimedia functions, Offline usage and storage, while increasing the performance and integration of various programs. Thereby becoming the all-around better option to help creating your training programs this article is a great heads up the next time anyone means “Flash” in the same sentence as “new training program”.

Here is the original article briefly discussing the Flash player going the way of the dinosaur: http://blog.commlabindia.com/elearning-development/flash-player-limitations-in-elearning

Here is an additional website that discusses HTML5 and all the new nifty options and improvements this version brings: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/Guide/HTML/HTML5

Organizational Clarity: “More Friendly Illustrated People” free download

From the Articulate community dedicated to increasing a professional’s knowledge of E-Learning, giving out free tips and free resources on how to implement E-Learning in the workplace or how to easily find cheap solutions to organizational needs.  I received to an article called: “More Friendly Illustrated People” this is a free download in .ai  (Adobe Illustrator File) and .png (Portable Network Graphic) of illustrations of characters for presentation usage.

Just click on the link here to learn more: https://community.articulate.com/download/more-friendly-illustrated-people

You can find more illustrated people to download here as well:

https://community.articulate.com/download/friendly-illustrated-people

Organizational Clarity: “10+ Examples of Financial Calculators in E-Learning” article/free downloads

From the Articulate community dedicated to increasing a professional’s knowledge of E-Learning, giving out free tips and free resources on how to implement E-Learning in the workplace or how to easily find cheap solutions to organizational needs. In this week’s email I received a link to: “10+ Examples of Financial Calculators in E-Learning” this is article engages ten creators, like other e-learning challenges, that have developed examples of various calculators to illustrate how to make learning more fun.

You can download some of these and thereby use the financial calculators for your projects. Financial calculators are great when you need tools to balance a project’s budget, for performance or even reward assessments. These Interactive Financial Calculators cover various subjects and types of measurement but there is an example for everyone and helpful in training those who want to understand the costs of a training project.

Just click on the link here to learn more: https://community.articulate.com/articles/financial-calculators-in-elearning

Organizational Clarity: “Project Accountability Matrix Template” free download

From the Articulate community dedicated to increasing a professional’s knowledge of E-Learning, giving out free tips and free resources on how to implement E-Learning in the workplace or how to easily find cheap solutions to organizational needs. In this week’s email I received a link to: “Project Accountability Matrix Template” this is article has a free download that helps you keep your projects on track.

A great tool for project managers who must hold people accountable what actions or goals were assigned to that person or persons and the time needed to complete this effort. This also helps defines each of the stakeholders’ responsibilities, the processes, activities, involved to meet their objectives and the organization’s goals.

Just click on the link here to learn more: https://community.articulate.com/download/project-accountability-matrix-template

Organizational Clarity: A wiki post called "State the purpose and goals of HPI"

So I wrote a couple of articles for a Human Performance Improvement class assignment that was a Wiki for the class and it was segmented into subject matter that dealt with organizational development and improving the human performance of the employees in the organization. I believe this will help students and professionals alike explain the concepts that deal with Human Performance improvement. This wiki posting is answering the question: State the purpose and goals of HPI this is what I wrote for the class:

One of the main goals of Human Performance Improvement (HPI) is to bring clarity and definition to the organizational expectations of each assigned role within the organization (Standard, D. O. E., 2009). This ensures that individuals in the organization have the skills that are matched to tasks to guarantee completion, and it outlines individual responsibilities for each in the organization.

By assessing all of the aspects of an organization through HPI, the organization itself can develop policies and procedures that will improve and extend its range of competencies and productivity. HPI also strives to add transparency to the organization, not only for role clarity but to build morale through acknowledgment of individual achievements and acquired skill sets. Reinforcement of this acknowledgment through HPI is done by either creating proper compensation or reinforcing the needed consequences.

HPI creates an atmosphere of professional development that reinforces expectations, lowers turnovers and gives an organization the ability to retain experienced individuals. Meanwhile, HPI helps an organization in identifying opportunities to implement the changes necessary to strengthen the organization overall, pushing it forward by highlighting the necessary direction(s) to the next level.

Reference

Standard, D. O. E. (2009). Human performance improvement handbook volume 1: concepts and principles. US Department of Energy AREA HFAC Washington, DC, 20585.

Organizational Clarity: RePackaging brands

As we all know organizations constantly repackage their products, the idea to rebuilt, retool, and reorganize is not only a foundational “brick” to building a successful organization. Most repackaging of products are successful, but there are some examples that most of us have lived through that have left us scratching our head. These organizations realized their mistakes and undid the repackaging process to get back to what their customers what they wanted.

For example, the new Coke is a very good example at not only repackaging but an entirely new product if you asked Coke customers, later the company would come out with Coke Classic and run that with the “new” Coke until there was only one left standing. Just recently Kylie Jenner repackaged her line of beauty products only with new packaging and a higher price, with the same old products inside. Being a “celebrity” and her product line not as globally used by a broad base of consumers can escape such scrutiny.

Although I have not used her products, it is still smart marketing as most people do not realize what they are paying for until it is too late. The smart part is that her company realized that their consumer base is paying for the “name” that goes with it, not the product as she rises in popularity so should her prices, or as reasoned by their actions. It is until it is too late will there be changes made to the new Coke formula will an organization retool their product from repackaged back to its original state, but only then.

Here is the article regarding Jenner’s repackaging error:

https://uk.style.yahoo.com/people-accusing-kylie-jenner-repackaging-103434739.html

Organizational Clarity: “Powerpoint: Color Blocks Template” free download

From the Articulate community is an article from easy, cheap solutions to meet organizational needs. In an email I received was a link to: “Powerpoint: Color Blocks Template” by Nicole Legault for a free download.

This Microsoft PowerPoint presentation download was made with the 2013 version of PowerPoint made up of five slides: One main slide and four additional slides. This would give any presentation to a sponsor or a group of learners an extra flair and organization that is usually needed to keep the flow going and help with explaining the subject matter properly.

It's a free download that has already had the font, organization, colors, etc., all done for you all you have to do is add text and personality, and viola! You will have a fantastic Microsoft PowerPoint presentation without that much effort expended while looking like an “expert” to everyone around you!

If you want to know more and download this PowerPoint just click the link here:

https://community.articulate.com/download/powerpoint-color-blocks-template

Organizational Clarity: “Course Seat Time Estimator” free download

From the Articulate community is an article from easy, cheap solutions to meet organizational needs. In an email I received was a link to: “Course Seat Time Estimator” by Mike Schwind for a free download.

This a Project Management & Planning download which will help anyone in the Training and Development department with trying to figure out how long their participants, the learners will take to complete the program they have designed. This can be remarkable in trying to determine the number of resources needed to be applied to the program before the organization gives the final “green light” for approval. Even though by this point most organizations have given approval all programs are subject to retooling, and this spreadsheet is a great tool during that process as well.

If you want to know more and download this Spreadsheet just click the link here:

https://community.articulate.com/download/course-seat-time-estimator