As a CEO, it’s important to support and champion employee training programs within your organization. Good leaders know that professional development is integral to the success of any company, creating a more positive work culture and better business results overall.

If you’re a HR manager, or have the task of developing training programs for your team, it’s a good idea to think about it from the perspective of your CEO. Taking the time to consider what senior executives look for in training will help you to meet your leadership team’s expectations. It’s also a sure-fire way to make sure your training program is as effective as possible for your employees.

So how do you know what CEOs look for in corporate training programs? What outcomes and results are likely to be expected? Read on to find out.

Improving employee skills and productivity

The first thing your CEO and senior leaders will want to see is an improvement in staff productivity. After all, the main objective of corporate training is to help workers be better placed to achieve organizational goals.

To do this, employees need to acquire the skills they need to perform certain tasks and carry out certain work duties on the job. Training allows them to do this, developing and improving skills that can be applied and used practically – not just in theory.

Your training program should aim to improve staff competencies and increase productivity. Consider how you can measure improvements in staff skill levels. Technical skills can often be measured quite easily, in tangible figures and numbers. Productivity itself is a very good indicator of the success of your company’s training methods, allowing you to see if your training program has been effective.

Your CEO will want to see concrete results when it comes to productivity. For example, are individual employees now able to perform certain tasks more quickly? Do they require less supervision or assistance from management? Is there a decrease in the amount of errors and mistakes made by workers? All these factors show a positive boost in staff productivity, which is good news for your training program.

CEOs will also look to training programs to help bridge any skills gap present in their organization. A skills gap occurs when there’s a mismatch between the skills that employers want and need, and the skills their employees currently have.

HR professional Jessica Miller-Merrell says that skills gaps can be seen as “the point at which the organization can no longer grow or remain competitive, because they don’t have the right skills to help drive business results and support the organization’s strategies and goals.” This is a very unstable situation for any company to be in – ongoing training can help prevent this from occurring. 

It’s important to carry out skills testing to provide your CEO with a benchmark of results across the organization, which can then be used to show changes in employee performance after training.

Last but certainly not least, CEOs want to know that they’re getting a good return on investment for the money they’ve invested in training. You should be able to clearly identify and outline any financial benefits that a training program is bringing to the organization.

As we said above, skills testing allows you to see improvements to staff productivity, performance and skill levels. In this way, the data also reveals whether or not you’re getting a good ROI. We’ve talked before about measuring the impact of employee training: you’ll know whether a training program is a worthwhile investment by measuring the impact it has on your employees and organization.

For example, when staff need less supervision, managers and team leaders have more time to focus on their higher-level duties. And with improved productivity levels, you’ll have less overtime and often increased profits – win, win. When these kinds of changes and improvements can be seen after initiating your training program, your CEO is most likely getting a solid return on their investment.

Thinking about these three things when developing your employee training program will help you keep the end game in mind. You want to show your CEO and senior leaders that the training program you’ve developed has resulted in:

You’ll be showing your strong capabilities as a leader, getting clear results for both your team and organization.

If you’ve found it useful to step into the perspective of your CEO, you may also like to read our previous article on how to think like a CEO. You’ll gain a greater understanding of how things fit together to contribute to the company’s ‘big picture’ – which is an essential part of becoming a more effective leader.

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What CEOs look for in an employee training program

It’s great that you want to invest time and money into training for your employees – we all know the benefits that professional development brings to both individuals and organizations. But before you go ahead and decide on the best training program for your staff, it’s important to carry out a proper training needs assessment.

This way, you can determine just what kind of training your employees need, to make sure they’re confident and competent in completing the tasks you need them to do.

Unfortunately, when it comes to employee training, “one of the biggest mistakes that companies often make is that they start putting together training plans based on perceived training needs.” When this happens, we see training programs being designed around the leadership team’s perception of staff competencies and skill gaps, rather than their employees’ actual needs. This leads to ineffective learning – and watching your L&D budget go down the drain.

To prevent this from happening, employers and managers need to make sure that all training programs are based on the results of formal training needs assessments. But how exactly do you go about evaluating and assessing employee training needs?

Here, we’ll take a look at the steps you can take to conduct a training needs assessment for your organization.

What Does a Training Needs Assessment Do?

A training needs assessment should always be the first step to any training program if you want it to be a success. An assessment will help ensure that your training investment is properly targeted, to bring the best results to your company and staff.

Put simply, the assessment looks at each staff member and evaluates whether they have the skills and knowledge to do what you need them to do. This means considering the role of each worker and how it contributes to the business goals of the organization, then measuring their current level of competence, skill or knowledge in one or more areas.

When there’s a mismatch between the employee’s skills and the skill level you need them to have, you can then focus on finding the right training to bridge that gap and bring things into line.

How to Conduct a Training Needs Assessment

Keen to know the right way to conduct a training needs assessment?

The assessment should be a three-tiered process, that moves through the following steps.

In this first step, you will outline your company’s goals and objectives. Any training initiatives that are proposed from the results of the assessment must be in sync with these organizational goals and vision.

Next, analyze the specific jobs and tasks that need to be carried out by staff. Be specific. Consider the skills, tools and resources needed. And how the capability of staff can be measured to ensure each task is being done correctly.

You can look at industry standards, time frames and measurements as you assess this. This will help you set more tangible goals as you develop training materials.

You need to look closely at who is to be trained – on an individual, team and department level. Because “performance gaps may not always be across-the-board, necessitating training for every employee in the organization.”

Looking at performance gaps will help you ascertain whether there are skills lacking in individuals or whole teams. If the problem lies across a whole department, for example, there may be external factors, such as poor leadership or a challenging physical work environment.

Again, this will help you focus and target training initiatives and learning materials. These results will also allow you to personalize training towards individual employees, which is more effective.

Using the Results of Your Training Needs Assessment

Once you’ve carried out the assessment and gathered this feedback, you’ll have a clearer snapshot of the current tasks, skills and capabilities of your workforce. You can then see how you can use this information to create an effective training program that helps you to meet organizational goals and targets.

By using the results of your assessment to develop more focused training, you’re making optimum use of your L&D budget and helping employees to boost their skill sets and professional development.

For more insights, be sure to subscribe to the Go1 newsletter to stay on top of all the latest L&D trends. Or, you can book a demo today to find out how Go1 can help with your team’s learning needs.

Before selecting training for your staff, it’s crucial to conduct a training needs assessment. Here's a complete guide to conducting a training needs assessment.

How to assess employee training needs

When it comes to your career, professional development is an important part of feeling satisfied, rewarded and inspired by your work.

Employees who receive ongoing professional development report being happier at work than those who are not being sufficiently trained or challenged in their roles. In fact, over half of today’s workforce considers professional development to be a contributing factor in their job satisfaction, with 58% of Millennials expecting employers to provide them with relevant learning and development opportunities.

Making sure that you’re continuing to improve your skill set will show employers that you’re committed to both professional and personal growth, which is essential if you want to get ahead in your career. One of the best ways to ensure that you keep learning, developing and growing within your role and industry is to invest some time in professional development courses.

Online courses are one of the easiest and best ways to help you get from where you are right now to where you want to be in the future. There are eLearning courses covering a huge range of professional development topics, from role-specific skills like programming and graphic design, to interpersonal ‘soft’ skills such as improving your communication and dealing with change.

To help get you started, here’s 5 of the best online courses around for professional development.

One of the best professional development steps you can take to boost your career is learning how to properly set and achieve goals. Identifying goals, setting them, and making them stick is easier said than done. But this course can help you do just that.

As the course outline says, “being able to set a path and stick to it, having the perseverance to make it work, and then recognising when you have found success are all the things great leaders are made of.”

This course is about taking responsibility for managing your professional development to achieve your career objectives. At the end of this course, you’ll feel more confident in knowing how to create and achieve your own goals, while using strategies to overcome any obstacles. You’ll understand the importance of networking and career planning – things you may have overlooked or seen as unimportant in the past – to set yourself up for success.

With customer service being central to many job roles, not just the retail and hospitality industries, it's an important part of your professional development. Whether your customers are internal stakeholders or external clients, your attitude towards customer service is likely to have a big impact on the company or organisation you work for.

Improving your understanding of customer service will help you in identifying your customers' needs while building stronger connections and relationships with them. This course will give you the tools you need to understand your modern customer base and how their needs have changed over time. You’ll explore topics such as:

why employee satisfaction is key for customer satisfaction,

the link between decision making and emotions, and

After the course, you’ll be able to review your customer experience strategy and respond more confidently to your customers' needs.

As we said earlier, improving soft skills such as communication can be a great place to start if you want to stand out from the competition and climb the corporate ladder.

No matter what role you’re in, or industry you’re working in, being able to communicate with colleagues, stakeholders, clients and senior leaders is one of the most important skills you can have. And if you want to move into a management or team leader position, you’ll need to know how to communicate effectively with your team.

This online course will help you find the right methods and channels of communication, to help lead you to more engaged and productive working relationships. You’ll leave this course with plenty of tips and tricks to use, and a clearer understanding of the environment you're trying to create within your workplace. Improving your communication skills won’t just benefit your work life – you’re bound to see positive benefits in your personal life also.

Another customer-focused eLearning course, this is interesting material for anyone who is keen to learn more about customer experience and improve their levels of service.

In order to provide extraordinary customer service, you need to understand the journey of your customers. This course teaches you how to map out the customer journey, helping you to understand the critical points in their journey, and how you can make sure their experience at these points is a positive one. You’ll gain important insight into the customer experience, which you can use to improve your customer strategy.

Adding these kinds of skills to your professional development will show your commitment to your customer base and the reputation of your organisation – both very valuable and valued traits in any employee.

This online course is particularly good if you’re looking to increase your leadership skills, as it explores strategic direction and ‘big picture’ thinking.

Leaders not only set the direction of an organisation, but also the company culture. This course will help you build a more collaborative and focused work culture by developing strategies that encourage positivity in the workplace.

identify and drive your organisation’s mission, vision and values

establish your values and align them to the business

use mission, vision and values to support your team and culture

help team members understand how their role fits into the bigger picture.

Even if you’re not currently in a management role it’s worthwhile taking this course. It can help prepare you for a promotion or relief position, giving you a competitive edge over other candidates.

The threat from online insecurity is no laughing matter for organizations doing business in today’s market. Yahoo’s 2016 security breach, which comprised one billion user accounts and cost an estimated $4.8 billion for the company to deal with, is a well-known case. Yet there are many others that while not so large, cause untold damage to businesses both large and small. Considering these dangers, isn’t online security an area that your business needs to get absolutely right?

Thankfully, the Internet has many online courses for improving both personal and organizational online security. There are plenty of online security courses being offered, but we’re here to suggest five of the best. This brief list offers cutting-edge knowledge, expert opinion, and a varying level of detail. We’ve arranged our list from most basic to most advanced, to offer someone for all levels of expertise.

When these valuable resources could be the difference between business success and business insecurity, the only difficulty is deciding on which course to pick.

The Security Awareness Training course, available from online training provider Go1, is the ideal introduction to internet security for individuals who need to learn about the basics of keeping safe online.

This course is aimed at professionals with little prior knowledge of internet workings. It employs language that is easy to understand yet teaches vital lessons on security and privacy, including phishing attacks, the importance of passwords, and how to keep personal devices like mobile phones secure.

If you’re not familiar with online security or feel at risk using the internet for work-related tasks then this is the course for you. It will provide a solid foundation upon which to build your confidence online, keeping you safe from potential predators.

Security Awareness Training is extremely well priced and offers incredible value for money. Sign up!

As this course explains, online threats are all too frequent and the signs of threats too frequently ignored. That’s why Open Sesame wants to improve student’s understanding of cyber security and keep machines, and the valuable information they hold, safer than ever before.

This level of this course is ideal for anyone who knows their way around computers and the internet but lacks professional knowledge on how best to improve their online security. It’s great for brushing up on safety procedures for employees who work online a lot.

There are many aspects of online security covered in the course including the threat of phishing and social engineering, the signs to be aware of to spot a virus-infected machine, as well as safe password practice.

Understand Cyber Security is a quick but efficient way to make sure you’re safe while using the internet and it won’t break the bank.

ISACA – CyberSecurity Fundamentals Online Course

From the independent, non-profit ISACA organization (previously known as Information Systems Audit and Control Association), the CyberSecurity Fundamentals Online Course walks learners through all foundational cybersecurity principles that are the bedrock of safe online practice for business systems today.

This course stretches over a minimum of 8 hours and leaves the learner assured of their security management knowledge. Targeted at students or recent graduates who are interested in entering into the cybersecurity field, this is a course for which learners should have a good understanding of computer systems.

Some of the topics addressed are the architecture of system security, incident response, and a whole host of interesting topics around emerging online threats.

At a cost of $400 for those who aren’t ISACA members, this is a fair investment. Check out the course pack to investigate further.

Software Engineering Institute – Information Security for Technical Staff, eLearning

The Software Engineering Institute is part of Pittsburgh’s Carnegie Mellon University and offers practical techniques that security staff can use to bolster their online security credentials.

Across 13 modules the course will teach best policy for system configuration, cryptography, and incident response to name but a few topics covered.

It goes without saying that this course requires students to already hold a high-level of computer systems understanding. It is intended specifically for systems security staff and the SEI actually recommends students have a minimum of two year’s experience under their belts before thinking about enrolling.

The cost reflects the level of expertise on offer but to improve your knowledge of both systems and online security, and to add some serious weight to your CV, this is a fantastic option.

CPDforMe - 10 Week Security Audit and Training Course

At the most tech savvy end of the spectrum is the 10 Week Security and Audit Training Course from CPDforMe. Hosted by Craig Rispin, an expert in technology trends who counts IBM and Toyota among some of his clients, this is an intensive program that plunges the depths of the Critical Security Controls, as described by the world’s global standard in securing IT systems, the Center for Internet Security.

This is an information heavy course that demands its students already have a good understanding of IT systems and the internet. This isn’t for those who want to be safe sending an email. It’s strictly for IT professionals.

Teaching security controls that were first used by the US military, this is a course that can offer the information necessary to secure an entire system.

Take a look to see what the fuss is about.

It’s never too late to start, that’s what they always say.

Though most of the time these worn out old sayings tend to be best taken with a hefty handful of salt, in the case of learning a new skill, whether as a hobby, for success in your work, or even to improve the health of your brain, this one hits the nail on the head. Regardless of your age or standing at in your career, learning new skills are incredibly beneficial.

The process of learning new skills gives individuals brand new abilities that can be particularly useful for an employer, as well as new perspectives and insights into the role of skills in any given workplace position. Even new skills that you may not feel relevant to your work can still be used to express the variety of aptitudes you have.

Here’s a look at the process behind learning a new skill and a suggestion of key points that will help you reach your goal.

Pick a New Skill and Make Sure It’s Worthwhile

Like most things in life, making the decision and taking the first step on the road is the hardest part of the whole journey. But once this is achieved, every other stage along that journey diminishes in difficulty.

To get you started with learning a new skill, you’ll first have to pick one. With all the interesting, exciting topics out there this can be tricky. Try first to first focus on a few of your preferences, then you can narrow those choices down.

Learning new skills for work require two main questions. The first is to ask which aspects of your job you enjoy the most. The second is to ask whether what you like doing is valued by your employer.

Deciding on your favorite aspects of your workplace role and basing your new skill on that will make the process of learning easier. Rather than a chore, it’ll be a joy. So for example, if you like watching the way people tick, you could learn a new skill through taking an organizational behavior course. But if you’re a computer programmer, is that going to help your career? That’s why you need to know whether the new skill you want to learn is valued in your corporate environment.

Set a New Skills Target, and Stick to It!

Here’s a fact that won’t surprise anyone: If you don’t put the work in then you’ll never achieve your target. The strange thing is that while everyone is aware of the importance of setting targets and putting in the hours of practice, few people ever do.

Once you’ve picked the new skill target, you set off on your journey. Attend the classes, practice what you’re taught and do not stop trying to learn. The more you practice, the better you get. But make sure your goals are realistic.

If your aim is to be able to hold a conversation in Italian but rarely practice speaking then don’t be shocked when your target deadline passes and you can’t even talk about the weather.

Remember that practice makes perfect and that it’s okay to make mistakes. Mistakes are part of learning and they remind you that you’re not quite there yet. Use them as a means to go on.

The ability to make mistakes dovetails well into the next point in our new skill learning process, which is simply this:  Remember to use your new skill!

Crazy idea, right? But this needs to be repeated. What is the point of learning a new skill if you’re not going to use it? If in the workplace a manager requires some help with HR work and you happen to have recently finished that organizational behavior course put yourself forward. If you’ve successfully completed that Italian conversation class and the boss is having trouble communicating with a client in Rome offer your new skill and dive right in.

A Method to the Madness – Make New Skill Learning Easier

Remember that in the journey of acquiring a new skill there are some factors that will make success more of less likely. One that we’ve already mentioned are picking a skill that will be valuable and that you think you’ll enjoy earning. Another is setting realistic goals.  But one of the most important factors in learning a new skill is the method of learning.  Online courses are a fantastic way to assist learning.

Resources like online learning course, or eLearning, are really helpful for professionals of any age. They’re mobile for learning anywhere, and flexible to suit any lifestyle. Working full time is no problem for online courses because you can go at your own pace. If there are kids to look after, you can log on and study after they’ve gone to bed.

For the most flexible yet effective of learning methods, look no further than an online learning course.

Enrolling on a course that certifies your ability to work in a group or that you are able to motivate others may seem a little silly, but put your biases aside for a moment.

Soft skills – those personal attributes that allow individuals to work harmoniously with others – are very highly considered. In fact, those who do not exhibit social abilities are unlikely to be considered for leadership roles. Soft skills are vitally important at leadership level.

So learning new skills that positively reflect your social abilities is time well spent. Add strings to your bow by certifying your attributes. Soft skills are needed now more than ever.

What better way to kick off July than with some updates to the Go1 Platform. As we pass by the midpoint of the year, we have made more updates to improve your learning experience and to ensure that you are getting the most out of the Go1 System. In this update, you will find improvements to several Administrator functions, including assigning courses,  managing you learning items, as well and being able bulk delete items and much more.

If you have any questions or comments about any of the updates below, please let us know and we’d be happy to help you out.

Want to assign a particular team or department certain courses? Now you can. Within the ‘Discussion’ in the menu bar you can select a group on the right hand side and then click on the ‘Learning’ header on the left hand side of the screen. From here you can add courses that will be included as assigned learning for all members of that group.

Courses can be arranged in user specified order for Awards

We recently introduced you to the Awards feature within the Go1 Platform. We have made an update that allows you to control how the courses in awards are displayed by enabling Administrators to define the display order of all courses within an Award. This means you can position the courses you would prefer your learners enroll into as the top courses.

Updated Welcome message to suit new interface

Enrollment bulk delete enabled, with ability to select all items to delete

Force user to watch entire video before completing

Ability to hide prices of courses in explore tab

Admin can generate multiple LTI for courses

All currencies supported by Stripe are now enabled

Sign up for a free trial today and try it out for yourself!

If you have any questions about any of the updates and improvements listed above, please let us know and our Customer Success Team can help you out!

What you need to know about the Go1 July update

Have you moved into a role which requires you to be an LMS administrator?

It’s important for organizations to have a dedicated person in charge of managing and monitoring their Learning Management System. Your LMS can be used to improve business operations, workplace processes and company culture – and as an LMS administrator, you hold the keys to the success of your LMS.

Here’s what you need to know about being an LMS administrator, to help you feel more comfortable and confident in your new role. For managers and leaders, this article will also highlight the skills you should look for in an LMS admin, and how their job duties can help improve your business.

Learning management systems can be used successfully for a number of different reasons. They can be used to onboard new hires, enrol learners into eLearning courses, and monitor and track professional development. They can also be used as communication and collaboration platforms, to help improve organizational culture.

For your LMS to work well for your business, an LMS administrator must be able to take care of the everyday operations of the system, for administration, documentation, reporting, and creation of training programs. If you’re an LMS admin, you should also work to establish a positive working relationship between technical support and the program manager.

Kamy Anderson, expert in learning management system and eLearning authoring tools, divides the key responsibilities of an LMS admin into three categories:

Technical duties – defining user roles, creating learning courses, building custom certification, providing feedback for learners.

Collaboration duties – Participate in the process of information exchange, assist in the process of the review creation, consult with other teams to implement the best learning practices.

Staff training duties – create training courses on a regular basis, keep track of freshly uploaded relevant courses, spot and resolve issues in courses, help learners with any issues.

Let’s look closer at the technical duty of creating online learning courses, because it’s one of the most important duties of the LMS admin. Many administrators are given the task to create online courses either within the LMS or through an authoring tool that is then uploaded into the system.

If you’re new to creating eLearning courses this could appear as a pretty daunting challenge. But we’re here to help you out with that too. We recently published a handy eLearning course design checklist, to help you feel confident in designing online courses in the best way possible for your audience. This comprehensive design checklist will ensure you’re covering important aspects of eLearning design throughout the process – such as accessibility, navigation, graphics, multimedia and assessments.

You can also read our article on what makes a good online course design, in terms of the psychology behind the design process. This will give you a more in-depth discussion of online course design, helping you to connect more closely with your learners and their needs.

Taking the time to learn more about creating online courses will help you to provide your organization with user-friendly, successful, effective eLearning courses.

With so many duties and responsibilities, an LMS admin needs to have strong skills in a number of different areas.

First up, you obviously need to have the technical computer skills to manage the Learning Management System, and the ability to learn systems and processes quickly.

You’ll also need to be an effective communicator, with the interpersonal skills to talk to people from business units across the organization – face-to-face, in email and over the phone. Being organized, efficient and able to manage your own workload is essential for LMS admin. And having a strong eye for detail will be an advantage, to both minimize and recognize errors in the LMS.

Anderson adds to this list, believing that a good LMS administrator needs to have “a dedicated approach and perfect understanding of your organization’s policy and goals when it comes to learning” and be 100% “familiar with the compliance requirements in your business sphere.”

As you can see, the role of LMS administrator is very important for an organization's learning processes, and the professional development of its employees. With your role, you have the ability to make a very positive impact on company culture and the people who work within the organization. Good luck in your exciting new role!

What you need to know about being an LMS administrator

As a manager, you have a responsibility to the professional development of your staff, helping members of your team to continually develop and strengthen their knowledge and skills. To do this, it’s important to know how to choose the best learning environments for your team – so each employee has the opportunity to learn in the way that is best for them.

Everyone is different. And we all learn in different ways. Recognising your own learning style and the environment you work best in is a huge factor in your own professional development. In the same way, understanding which type of learning environment suits your employees best will allow you to work with them in the most effective way, while also making the most of your L&D resources.

If you’re in a management or leadership role, you’re in an exciting position to lead the way in improving professional development in your workplace. So why not take the time to gain a better understanding of learning environments, for the benefit of your team and organisation?

Thanks to technology, we’ve moved far beyond the dull days of workplace training. With new learning technologies, there are now plenty of exciting ways to help people learn, including eLearning, mobile, social and blended learning. And learning isn’t just confined to the training room.

There are many environments in which you can gain knowledge, which can be divided into four quadrants:

Effective learners learn in all four quadrants. So it’s wise to adapt to the future of learning and use this information to the advantage of your team.

HR managers, for example, are using a range of tech tools to improve the way they hire, onboard, train and manage employees. By investing in good learning technology, you’ll be far more likely to keep staff engaged, motivated and happy in their jobs – which is a win for both individual and organisation.

Keen to learn more about different learning environments for your staff?

The online course, How to Make the Best Learning Environment Choices, is a great place to start. Through this eLearning course, you’ll learn how to embrace learning environment diversity, which means offering development opportunities in a way that better meets the needs of the individual, not just the business.

Through videos, interviews and presentations from experts, you’ll learn what the future of workplace learning looks like, and discuss trends in leadership development and how workplace learning has changed.

You’ll work through the blended learning model, to understand the benefits of this practice for your employees. The course is specifically created for managers, so you’ll be given plenty of tips and tricks you can use back in the workplace to really understand and support your team.

While discovering how to identify your preferred learning style and environment, you’ll also be encouraged to experiment and try to expand your learning style, so that you can learn in other ways or environments. With the course running for approximately 30 to 45 minutes, you can cover all this in less than an hour!


How to choose the best learning environments for your team

Employees are typically given specific roles and responsibilities within a workplace. When something doesn’t fall within their wheelhouse, it gets shifted to someone else. Over time, the culture of sending something down the chain creates silos which harm productivity and keep knowledge segmented.

What causes these silos? Often, it’s a lack of proper communication and collaboration within the office. And it’s a highly prevalent issue.

In a survey of senior executives, only 25 percent of the participants said their workplace was effective at sharing knowledge across theoretical boundaries. Luckily, there are options for those interested in improving collaboration and focus in their teams. It requires fundamental changes to a company’s culture but, once these are in place, you’ll see productivity rise as workers are able to communicate more effectively, even between departments.

The How to Build Collaborative and Focused Teams course will help you bust through harmful silos to create a more supportive environment that encourages everyone to work as a unit. It provides methods for letting employees play to their strengths by creating thorough plans based on shared goals.

Here's a snapshot of everything covered in the course, so you know exactly what to expect as well as the benefits you’ll receive.

Welcome to the better way of doing business

The course begins with an introduction designed to help you see the various methods for building strong relationships with your team. You’ll learn about motivating your workers to be at their best and how to encourage trust among the group’s members.

This serves as a critical foundation, one upon which you’ll build a collaborative and focused team that can accomplish more in less time or by using fewer resources, all while working together seamlessly.

If you want to institute real change within your team, you’ll need to create a culture that fosters the new concepts of increased collaboration. In this module, key aspects of the “Circle of Safety,” an approach supported by Simon Sinek, will be covered.

The intention is to help you learn what it takes to build a workplace that functions on mutual trust and respect, ensuring all members of the team feel supported by each other and their manager. By establishing a “Circle of Safety” everyone has one another’s backs, keeping everyone protected and secure as they do their part.

Trust alone isn’t enough to get your team operating at their optimal level. The “Performance Planning” module teaches you how to motivate your employees properly and plan to ensure peak efficiency. You’ll be introduced to the cycle of driving team performance as well as techniques for bringing it into your workplace.

The purpose of this lesson is to understand what makes your team tick and how that information can help you motivate them to be at their best. Each person’s source of motivation may differ slightly, so knowing what they value is important to group success. This enables you to keep them moving forward even if times get challenging.

At their core, all performance plans are either reactive or proactive. The “Reactive and Proactive Performance Plans” module helps you learn to distinguish between the two paradigms, allowing you to make intelligent choices during the planning phases.

A collaborative workplace also means achievement is a group effort, even if the contributors are individuals. So, the successes and failures of the one are also the successes and failures of the team.

This section discusses the interconnectedness of performance. You’ll see how individuals, the team, and the organization all share responsibility in the performance arena, and how each piece affects the other within a business.

Many leaders wonder about the most efficient way to measure performance within the team. The “Measuring Performance” module helps answer that question.

You’ll learn about Key Results Areas (KRAs) and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and how these can measure the success of team efforts. This section also explores lead and lag indicators in relation to KPIs, as well as how Professional Improvement Plans can impact the workplace culture in positive and negative ways.

The intention is to give you methods that can help you monitor performance while ensuring you have the tools necessary to make internal adjustments to create greater success.

The “What’s Your Game Plan?” section is an opportunity to explore what you’ve learned in the course and see how you can use the information to increase collaboration and focus within a team.

You’re provided a scenario featuring details about a team that has fallen off track. Then, using information from the entire How to Build Collaborative and Focused Teams course, you can put your skills to the test and select three areas of focus to help improve the team. This gives you a chance to explore your understanding of the lessons from a place of safety.

The final section offers congratulations, as you now have the knowledge to help you build collaborative, performance focused teams in your own workplace. The skills are yours to use, so you can move forward confidently as you bring positive change into your organization.

How to build collaborative and focused teams

There’s a lot of research into diversity and its impact on the workforce. The main message that’s currently broadcast is that diversity is a great thing and beneficial to business.

It can be a good thing, but it can also be problematic. I looked into both these aspects in my recent PhD into diversity in business. Understanding how and why diversity can have positive and negative effects is an important step in understanding how to create more effective and efficient teams.


Diversity can take many specific forms, such as differences in age, gender, ideology, geography, and many other attributes.

Research suggests that greater levels of diversity are critical when pursuing creative endeavours. Socially and professionally diverse groups have been shown to be more innovative than homogenous groups. Coming up with new ideas unsurprisingly benefits from a diversity of perspectives.

But in other pursuits, greater homogeneity may prove to be a quicker way of getting the job done. When it comes to implementing a task, diversity can introduce communication ‘overheads and other forms of friction.

I believe there’s a way of having our diversity cake and eating it too. The solution comes from implementing systems and processes that minimise the overheads associated with diversity.

To illustrate this abstract concept, imagine that you are working in a two-person team, and that you’re tasked with drawing a map of the world from scratch.

You might have a pretty good idea of the region around Australia. Perhaps you can add in New Zealand and parts of Asia too.

If you’re paired with a person who is similar to you, you’ll be able to work together and quickly add more detail to the parts of the world that you both know well. As you start drawing countries further from home you might struggle a bit more and the shapes will probably get a little less accurate.

Then imagine being paired with someone who is from another country instead. The chances are that they’ll be able to fill in some of the gaps that you’re not sure of. Together you’ll be able to produce a better overall map of the world.

However, it’s more likely than not that the person you’re paired with in the second scenario doesn’t speak English. Progress might be slower as you try and coordinate and communicate. Perhaps communication is so difficult you can’t even communicate that it’s a map you’re trying to draw.

This is the double-edged sword of diversity.


If we added a translation service into our hypothetical map drawing project, then nine times out of ten, the more diverse team is going to end up with the better product. Without this bridge, the barriers to communication and collaboration could mean it goes either way.

There is much that needs to be done to improve diversity for many workplaces. This includes obvious forms of diversity, but I think we should also be aware of the less obvious examples of diversity too.

Fortunately, it is not difficult to implement systems and processes that help harness a diversity of perspectives. Rotating staff between teams is just one simple strategy to share ideas and experiences. Another effective approach is to run hackathons or other events which break people out of their normal paradigms and environments. And of course, having a strong organisational culture that spans roles and locations makes it easier for people to work together.