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.

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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.

This article was originally published by HR Magazine 

For more insights, 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.

How to harness the power of diversity in the workplace - Go1

Diversity can be a double-edged sword when businesses don’t have systems to harness it

Are you responsible for creating online courses and learning materials for your organization?

Designing eLearning courses for other people, such as managers and colleagues, can be tricky. You no doubt want to make sure that you’re creating content that addresses the needs of your learners, as well as the business. But often, eLearning professionals are pressured to produce content under tight deadlines, with very little briefing.

While this might seem to be time-saving and productive, it actually holds little benefit for both learners and the organization. Because when creating an eLearning course for employees, you want to know that you’re meeting their learning objectives and delivering effective, engaging training materials. And this takes time. Rushing your online course design will only result in lower quality content that’s no good to your users or organizational goals.

So what can you do about handling this situation? Well, next time someone approaches you with a training request, you need to stop and ask yourself one important question – why. This one simple word can help create better alignment between the business needs of your organization and the training content you develop for your learners.

Kevin M. Yates, Learning and Development Measurement Expert, uses a great analogy to explore the frustrations faced by many eLearning professionals when dealing with the way training requests are delivered.

“There are times where the discussion between the L&D team and the business sounds like placing a fast-food order for training, Yates says, likening the process to ordering “a classroom training from the lite menu with a side order of video-conference” or “a couple of WebEx programs to go.”

Approaching learning content in this generic, out-of-the-box way fails to consider the specific needs of your audience, or even your audience themselves. We’ve talked before about taking a cookie cutter approach to learning and how it’s never the best way to educate students or staff. That’s why you need to deliver customized training solutions that are tailor-made for your staff.

To do this, Paul Rosevear suggests using the The 5 Whys questioning technique, pioneered by Taiichi Ohno and made famous by Toyota. This technique encourages employees to ask “why?” at least five times in succession, to drill down to the root of any problem.

As Rosevear says, “blindly fulfilling training often invites a far simpler conundrum: the training that’s been requested might not even be solving the right problem.”

In contrast, asking why helps you to determine the issue or problem that needs to be solved. Once you’ve established this, you can move on to determining how to solve it through your eLearning materials.

Rosevear uses this dialogue between a VP and eLearning professional to illustrate this point, and the process of the 5 Whys questioning technique.

As you can see, the questions asked by the eLearning professional help to uncover the team's true issue, along with the learning objective that needs to be achieved. He can then go ahead and create an online course that will successfully address and meet this learning objective.

Imagine, on the other hand, that he had walked away from the VP immediately after the initial briefing. It's likely that he would have created eLearning materials around collaboration, right? By asking questions, and drilling down to the crux of the issue, our eLearning professional is able to design far more targeted and effective materials around the topic of critical feedback. He's able to help the Product team function better, leading to more positive results for the team, their VP, the organization and its customers or clients!

Try out the 5 Whys technique next time you're asked to design an eLearning course. You'll soon find this questioning technique become more natural to you, as you become more accustomed to looking at the big picture.

You might also like to check out our handy eLearning course design checklist, to help you design online courses that your audience will love.

For more in-depth discussion of online course design, look closer at what makes a good online course design, in terms of the fascinating science behind the design process.

One question to ask before creating an online course

We live in a digital world and that fact encouraged many businesses to bring in an LMS to facilitate training and education within the organization. However, just bringing in a program isn’t enough to get your employees excited about logging in. There has to be more to it than just being present.

If the only time your workers log in to the LMS is to take required training, you aren’t getting the full value out of the program. While education in required areas is important and should be made a priority, this isn’t encouraging employees to dig deeper. In fact, it could leave them less enthusiastic about the system.

To get your users excited about your LMS, you need to entice them and clearly demonstrate the value beyond ensuring compliance with certain policies. So, how do you peak their interest? Here are some tips to get you started.

Understand the Importance of Professional Development

The first step to increasing the use of your LMS is to understand how important that system really is, and not just in the context of your company. We all know that skilled workers improve your bottom line, but providing opportunities to grow professionally helps your staff too, in more ways than one.

Yes, additional training can give them the tools to be more productive during work hours, but that isn’t the only benefit. In most cases, your best and brightest crave challenges and are looking for support as they reach for their goals. And failing to provide employee development opportunities leads to early exits from your company.

High achievers want to learn and grow, and an LMS can be an ideal vehicle. You just have to make sure it is accessible and offers courses that excite your employees. And that means looking past mandatory training into something more comprehensive.

Even if you have a plethora of courses, you aren’t getting the full value of you LMS if you limit who can take what.  Often, managers only open training to individuals working in a particular job category, figuring it’s wise to limit access based on theoretical relevance to their current duties.

However, by opening up the full catalog to the entire organization, you may see something surprising.

Interest in a course isn’t always cut along job titles. For example, an executive assistant may appreciate a greater understanding of technical or scientific aspects of the department, as they are often tasked with taking meeting notes, compiling reports, creating presentations, and other similar support work.

If they don’t understand the subject, their effectiveness is limited. And, when faced with an option to alleviate their confusion and improve their understanding of the nature of the business, many will take advantage of the opportunity.

Similarly, there may be employees throughout the company who would like the opportunity to move up the ranks or change departments to follow an interest. By giving them access to everything your LMS has to offer, you’re encouraging them to explore new areas of knowledge or careers. And that may be the ideal inspiration to help them move forward.

So, if a current IT employee is interested in project management, why not let them give a Project Management for Information Technology course a try? They’ll get to learn more about a subject of interest and your company benefits from having an enthusiastic employee with more knowledge.

Did you know that word-of-mouth marketing is considered one of the most effective approaches for connecting with customers? If so, did you realize you can use the same principles to increase interest in your LMS?

Once your LMS has the right offerings, finding a few cheerleaders to help spread the word can be an effective method to get people logging in. And, when you choose employees from all levels within your company to do the talking, you might reach the largest percentage of your workers.

In many cases, management informs employees about options like LMS, they don’t necessarily discuss it. However, an employee that is excited about online learning won’t just send out an email to their co-workers telling them to try it; they’ll TALK about it with them.

They’ll sell the benefits, explain the system, and encourage people to explore the courses themselves. From a marketing perspective, this is hard to beat. And it’s a technique you can use to bring people to the LMS.

Then, once other people start getting excited about the opportunities, they’ll talk about it too.

You can begin this process by looking for your current top users of the system or those who’ve expressed an interest in learning more about their positions or the organization. Make sure they get a chance to have a great experience and encourage them to spread the word once they’ve gotten their hands dirty a few times.

If your go-to move is an email that doesn’t say more than “here’s a link to the LMS” and provides login information, it shouldn’t be a surprise people aren’t flocking to the site. You need to sell the LMS as a great opportunity. And that isn’t necessarily hard to do.

Start by keeping emails concise, but use more personal language to connect with your employees. Let them know the system is “ready for you” and that it will “help you learn and grow as a professional.”

The word “you” is especially powerful here, as it lets them feel as though you are speaking directly to them.

Feel free to include employee testimonials, such as some created by your cheerleaders. This helps other workers see that people just like them value the LMS, and it will encourage them to take a look.

Using some of the tips above, you can dramatically increase the interest in your LMS, allowing both your company and your employees reap the benefits of these great offerings. So, take the time to talk it up right, gather your cheerleaders, and make sure every knows the sky’s the limit when it comes to training opportunities.

Does your organisation have a proper social media policy in place?

Whether you like it or not, the way in which your employees use Facebook, Twitter and other social media channels can have an impact on the professional and ethical reputation of your organisation. It can also lead to serious legal ramifications and security risks for the company. To avoid these kinds of situations from occurring, it’s vital for all businesses to have a strong social media policy in place, outlining guidelines and expected behaviour from their employees.

Here are three ways your organisation will benefit from a good social media policy.

The primary function of your social media policy is to protect the reputation of your company.

These days, with much of our life being documented online, there is a thinner line between what’s private and public. Many people include details of their occupation and employer on their Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts, meaning anything that is posted on social media could be seen to reflect that company’s organisational values. While this might not be true, or even fair, if the content contains sensitive or confidential information about your workplace, it presents a serious risk for both employees and their employers.

A social media policy helps to define what’s appropriate for staff to post about their company on social media channels. Having clearly defined guidelines means employees know the difference between what’s appropriate and not appropriate to discuss on social media.

“Generally, the policy will state that employees shouldn't write anything they wouldn’t want splashed across the public media,” says Mark Henricks, in an article for Entrepreneur. Keeping this framework in mind can help protect both staff and the organisation, as in the case of the Secret Service above.

Social media presents significant potential for risk when it comes to posting sensitive or confidential company information, which can lead to serious legal consequences for both staff and employers. In today’s workforce, social media policies are no longer a simple ‘nice to have’ detail – they have become a very necessary legal policy document.

By having a social media policy in place, you can remove any confusion about legal issues. A good social media policy will:

Clearly spell out which social media use in the workplace is acceptable and which is not

Include information on what’s considered confidential or private company information

Explain the consequences of going against the rules of this policy

As an employer, you’re doing the right thing by educating staff in this area. And most employees will appreciate having clear guidelines about what the organisation considers public information.

Rich Nadworny, Director of Entrepreneurship and Innovation, explains: “social policies won’t stop all poor behavior. But they will cause some people to pause and think before they act socially.” Stopping to think before making a careless Facebook post or Tweet could be the difference between keeping your job or from getting fired and drawn into a serious legal dispute.

Now that we’ve talked about the more serious aspects of social media, it’s important to also realise its potential for bringing positive attention to your company. Using social media in the right way can raise more awareness of your organisation and what it does. And your social media policy will help you do this!

A good social media policy will contain clear guidelines to help employees understand ways they can use social media to help achieve company goals. Encourage staff to share good news stories and company wins across social media channels. You should feel comfortable that employees know what’s considered confidential or sensitive information, as it’s outlined in your policy document.

Your social media policy should also contain details of your company’s social spokesperson, so all staff know who to direct enquiries or concerns from these channels. You don’t want employees to be fielding these questions themselves – firstly, it’s not part of their job description, and secondly, they probably aren’t best equipped to handle these enquiries in the public eye.

For more help creating a social media policy for your organisation, take a look at this short one-hour course on Developing a Social Media Policy. This eLearning course is useful for anyone wanting to know more about protecting their business and employees while using social media. You’ll also receive a free social media policy example for you to download at the end.

Looking to develop your UX skills and gain a better understanding of user experience?

If you’re a UX designer, you’ll know how important it is to keep your design skills up-to-date and relevant to the industry. One of the best ways to continually develop your knowledge and skills is through eLearning, with loads of great training courses for UX designers available online.

Whether you want to learn more about user profiling and personas, or explore the world of mobile app design, you’re sure to find an online course that fits your objective. To get you started, here’s our pick of the bunch – a selection of 5 of the best eLearning courses for UX designers.

Kicking off the list of online courses, UX Design for Web Developers is a good starting place for understanding the principles and best practices of user experience.

Presented through video, this is a course for web developers who are looking to develop a deeper understanding of user experience – including why we need UX and how UX came to be. You’ll learn more about tools and techniques you can use to create better user experiences and interactive web design.

As you explore UX methodologies, you’ll develop the fundamental skills for designing a mobile-friendly website and structuring a website content strategy. Learn how to:

Build a website structure, keeping in check user flows and sitemaps

Exploit wireframes and build a solid one for responsive web design

Get to grips with UX best practices and incorporate them in your web design

Learn how to build a clickable wireframe prototype to enhance responsiveness

Upon completion of the course, you’ll have a finished website plan, ready for user testing and feedback.

UX Design Techniques: Creating Scenarios and Storyboards

This one is probably best for people who are already working in a UX design role, and who already have a good understanding of user experience best practice.

The Creating Scenarios and Storyboards course offers an in-depth look at the importance of scenarios and storyboarding to UX design. Both of these elements are vital for web designers, as they allow the designer to see how things will play out in a real environment.

Through this eLearning course, you’ll learn how to write scenarios and create engaging visual storyboards. These skills will help you map out ideas about what users need to complete day-to-day tasks and workflow, making your website designs far more effective and user-friendly.

Mobile UX Design Process: Create a Successful App

Want to know how to create apps? This course will give you the mobile app design skills you need to succeed in the competitive world of UX.

With Mobile UX Design Process, you’ll be adding a highly valued skill to your CV, enabling you to prototype, generate and test apps directly on your phone. Throughout the course, you’ll gain an understanding of what makes a positive mobile experience for users.

You’ll create a native iOS App, starting from the ideation process, moving on to drawing ideas and wireframing a basic concept. You’ll explore adding new elements and complex interactions to reach the result and experience you’re looking for.

Another from the UX Design Techniques series, the Creating Personas course will show you how to create for the users you care about most. Personas are used in UX to help establish a picture of the exact customer you’re designing for. This way, your whole team will have the same person and goal in sight, as they develop the site, app or product.

This course challenges you to think about who you are developing for and exactly how they will use your design. You’ll be shown how to collate and interpret user data from site visits and interactions, to create effective personas.

By taking the time to learn how to work with personas, you’ll be able to improve your UX skills, and design in a way that’s far more coherent and focused.

Building and Maintaining Your UX Design Portfolio

Last, but not least – we’ll leave you with this cool course. Because while it’s obviously vital to keep developing your skills in UX design, it’s also important to know how to showcase these skills.

With the Building and Maintaining Your UX Design Portfolio course, you’ll learn how to make sure your portfolio stands out from the competition. You’ll be shown all the different elements that combine to make a strong UX portfolio and how to incorporate storytelling into your presentations.

Worried that you don’t even have a portfolio to begin with? Don’t worry, this course will help you get started on that, with tips for creating your first portfolio – even if you're new to a UX role and are just starting out in your career!

In recent weeks, we’ve seen various countries across the world affected by major cyber attacks involving ransomware. The ransomware, believed to be a malicious computer virus known as Petya, has wreaked havoc on more than 200,000 organizations in over 150 countries – including companies, universities, government agencies and hospitals across Britain, Spain, Portugal, Russia and Ukraine.

Earlier this month, Mikko Hypponen, chief research officer at Helsinki-based cybersecurity company F-Secure, called the series of attacks "the biggest ransomware outbreak in history."

Now, this global ransomware attack has hit Australia, disrupting the operations of a number of Australian businesses – including the Cadbury chocolate factory in Hobart.

With companies worldwide scrambling to recover from corporate chaos, Australian business owners and leaders are no doubt worried about how ransomware could affect their own organisation. If you’re in this position, it’s important to understand how this form of cyber threat works and think about how you can protect your business, well before anything goes wrong.

Being prepared, and taking precautions against the risk of ransomware, will help you minimise the threat of cyber attacks on your company. Here’s what you need to know about ransomware, how it works, and steps you can take to protect your organisation.

Ransomware, such as the Petya virus, is a type of malicious software that has the ability to freeze or shut down computers – from an individual’s personal laptop computer, to the servers of a whole organisation.

You might be wondering how your computer can become infected with a virus like this? Well, to gain access to a company’s system, the malware virus needs to be downloaded onto a device within the network. To make this happen, the virus is generally hidden in an email, in the form of a link or attachment, that can be clicked on and opened by unknowing employees. When the link or attachment is accidentally opened, the virus is immediately downloaded to the system, freezing computers, taking out servers and locking up company files.

Once this has happened, hackers and cyber criminals have a way to extort money from companies or individuals. After gaining control of a system, they demand a ransom in return for decrypting the virus and unlocking computers. Pretty scary stuff, right?

The past month has shown us that it’s critical for business owners to pay serious attention to cyber security and the risk of ransomware attacks.

As the internet and the real world have become increasingly intertwined, our businesses and lives have become increasingly vulnerable to cyber criminals. Any company or organisation that depends on daily access to important data for business operations – and can’t afford to have those operations disrupted – should be worried about ransomware.

It's not only large multinational corporations, government agencies and big business that are at threat of cyber attacks. As individuals, we are also at risk of being targeted. So even if you’re not a business owner, or CEO, read on for some important tips for protecting yourself against ransomware.

How Can I Protect My Company Against Ransomware?

One of the best defenses against ransomware is to back up important data daily. This way, even if your company's computers and servers do get hacked and locked, you can't be forced to pay for access to important business data.

The director of the Australian Centre for Cyber Security at UNSW, Professor Jill Slay, recommends companies “update all Windows systems if not updated and make sure all critical files are backed up.”

"Just be really careful to back up, update Windows and applications, do not open unexpected attachments to emails – this is what we should be doing anyway – and install antivirus software if you do not have it already," Slay advises.

Jason Tanz, site director at Wired, agrees and recommends backing up your files remotely, or to the cloud.

“Make sure you're backing up your files every day, and that means on a hard drive that is not connected to the internet," Tanz says. Because ransomware is only an effective threat when there’s no other record of the files being held for ransom. As Tanz says, “if you have all your files backed up, it leaves those using ransomware against you without any power whatsoever."

Removing this power is an important step in reducing the threat of ransomware. As well as backing up data, help employees to be aware of the risks of opening suspicious emails, and clicking on links and attachments within emails. Be particularly wary of compressed or ZIP files, as these attachments are often used to hide malware viruses. And always install software updates as soon as they are available. Antivirus programs can also go a long way in stopping ransomware from being downloaded onto computers.

By taking these precautions, you can protect yourself and your business from malicious ransomware and the risk of cyber attack. Being prepared, and taking proactive steps for increased cyber security, really is your best line of defense.

How to protect your business against ransomware

Few things in life are as inevitable as change. Whichever of life’s many great paths we choose to tread, we cannot avoid change and must accept that things come and go. Nowhere is this truer than in the dynamic world of business, where the need to be ahead of the game to outfox competitors and satisfy customers is the ongoing challenge. Overcoming that challenge is only possible with a workforce that is ready to adjust.

It’s a good thing then, that eLearning training programs are able to help organizations prepare their employees for changes. Whether it’s the size of the business that has grown, technology has forced a change or any other reason of the many possibilities out there.

In this article, we’ll explain how change management can be administered through training programs to help employees adjust to their new environment.

Let’s take a moment to make ourselves aware of what change management actually is. Change management is a really big umbrella term for the process of corporations supporting individuals and teams during a period of change within that corporation.

Change is necessary but can be traumatic for people in an organization, hence the need for support. New skills must be learned, ways of working understood and experience gained for something totally new. This can be dramatic with disruptive consequences. It’s for that reason that change should be managed.

Change management is all about ensuring that each individual within an organization is catered for directly. Their skills, educational background, and workplace experience are analyzed to decide upon the skill gaps that could be filled or the wealth of knowledge that can be improved even more to prepare them for a higher level position.

For the individual, this is a great opportunity. But don’t forget to speak to the individual.

If a training program planner is about to devise eLearning courses or programs for me, I’d sure want to be consulted beforehand.

The best way to make sure that the training you’re providing is both effective and suitable is by talking to the employee. This is particularly important during a time of upheaval in an organization when individuals can feel most adrift.

Make sure each employee is involved in a process that will bring great changes for them.

Business organizations aren’t charities. Staff members are paid to work on the behalf of the company and are expected to perform accordingly. But most companies do also care about their employees. For this reason, it’s important to include realistic benefits for individuals within a training program.

As we’ve already touched on, employees can feel adrift during overhauls. Their previous positions might be lost and they are expected to take on new responsibilities by drawing on skills they’ll be taught. Because of this uncertainty, a training program should communicate the real-world advantages of the training and explain how the individual will benefit from it.

Training should offer a window into a better world for the employee with the realistic possibility of job advancement, or in exceptional cases, even promotion, based on the successful application of new skills learned.

Don’t offer training simply to manage the change; make it work for everyone.

Training programs that are suitably administered offer a sense of control to employees during the period of change. Handling the change will be so much easier if employees are on your side. Giving employees a sense of ownership over their training increases levels of commitment and keep them engaged in the task ahead.

One way to do this is to involve employees in thinking of solutions to problems of the business, and then using training to instil the necessary skills to resolve them. In this way, the loss they may be feeling during the change will be taken care of, and the skills that employees garner will help the business in the future.

It’s that a company keeps their employees happy, to ensure company retention and staff morale. Giving staff some control over the training they receive creates a personal connection between training and staff member.

Training in the name of change management isn’t only an opportunity for employees but can serve as a way for organizations to reinforce the message of change too.

If the change is a sweeping work culture one, use the training programs to bolster the message of a new way of working. If the change is one of focus – perhaps to put a greater emphasis on customer service – then point this out regularly.

Use this opportunity to underscore the change that is happening.

The changing of a company’s working can be stressful for employees, and why wouldn’t it be? When we’re comfortable in situations, jumping into new things can seem a little scary.

Managing this change through online training programs eases the worries of workers. It improves the morale of staff, treating them as individuals and promoting the care for their well-being.

When a business changes its outlook or structure, the skills that are required for its continued success running will change too and training helps to make sure there are fewer skill shortages in important areas.

Using eLearning training to guide employees through organizational changes takes advantage of a period that could otherwise be disruptive to upscale worker skills and improve company dynamism. Don’t miss out.

How to handle change management for training programs

If you work in eLearning, it’s likely you often deal with other employees who are subject matter experts. With their specialized and in-depth knowledge, these people can provide you with the information you need to create effective online courses for your learners.

In this way, subject matter experts, also known as simply SMEs, play a very important role in the eLearning development process. As well as sharing their advanced knowledge, SMEs can provide valuable insight and feedback on your course materials, helping to ensure the content is accurate and timely.

When communicating with subject matter experts, it’s important to foster a positive and productive working relationship, just as it is with any client or stakeholder. You want the subject matter experts in your organization to feel comfortable and committed to sharing their knowledge with you. How do you do this, in a way that ensures SMEs aren’t feeling continually pressured for their knowledge and time?

Here’s our advice for the best way to communicate with subject matter experts on eLearning projects.

So who are the subject matter experts in your organization?

Generally, SMEs are employees who have been in their roles for a long time, and are known for their advanced knowledge and expertise in a specific subject, business area, or technical area. Think of them as the “go to” person within a department or company, that other staff approach for information, input, advice and solutions.

With their high-level perspective of the subject, you can expect SMEs to not only answer how things are done, but why. You should be able to rely on these experts to have the requisite knowledge that underlies effective decision-making, and to provide solid recommendations for things like company policies and procedures.

A subject matter expect will also understand all the specific terms and jargon in their area of expertise and can explain that area clearly to others. They should know their subject matter well enough that they rarely have to look up information – and if they do have to, they’ll know exactly where or who to turn to in order to find that information.

Value SMEs Time and Communication Preferences

Like all projects, your eLearning project will flow far more easily when everyone involved knows what’s expected of them and works together as a team.

One of the most important aspects of successful teamwork is recognizing and respecting each other’s time and communication style. The fact is, while your online course might be your own project ‘baby’ and something that you’re very passionate about, a subject matter expert might not feel the same way about it. For them, the time and effort required for collaborating on eLearning course materials could be considered as additional work and just another thing they need to tick off their to-do list.

As Karla Gutierrez, Inbound Marketer at Aura Interactiva, says “SMEs have high-priority, full-time jobs — and not much time to spare.”

So be flexible in your dealings with SMEs, just as you would with any client or stakeholder. After all, you are the one requesting information and help from them, so be prepared to do this in a way that’s easiest for them.

For example, if it’s clear that someone prefers to communicate verbally, and is having trouble getting back to you by email, offer to give them a quick phone call at a time convenient to them – rather than continuing to send them endless emails that will just leave them frustrated. This way, they can simply brief you over the phone and you can take dot points for the content you need.

By making simple changes like this, subject matter experts will appreciate your willingness to work with them in their preferred communication style, saving them time and stress.

It’s also important to look at the language you’re using when communicating with subject matter experts.

Shauna Vaughan, Lead Instructional Designer and Project Manager at , believes there are three words that should be avoided when it comes to subject matter experts – you, no, and problem or issue.

Choosing other words to use in place of those three words will help keep dialogue and working relationships with SMEs more positive and productive. You’ll also be creating an environment where all individuals feel included and valued for their knowledge and input.

“By using inclusive, positive language, we can build consensus and create an atmosphere of collaboration,” Vaughan says.

She suggests using we instead of you as often as you can. This implies a partnership between the two of you, where you are both working towards the same goal, as part of the same team.

When it comes to the word no, it’s best to rephrase your words to sound less negative and problematic. Instead of saying, “No, we can’t do that, it’s out of scope” try “Yes, absolutely, we can do that. Let’s take a look at our current scope and see what adjustments we would need to make to make that happen.”

Similarly, words like problem and issue carry a negative connotation. Some people can get frustrated and annoyed if they think you are always coming to them with problems to solve. Talk about finding solutions together, rather than launching straight into the issue at hand or dumping the problem on them.

Try these tips for yourself when you’re consulting with subject matter experts for your next project.

And don’t forget – once you’ve launched your online course, make sure you take the time to thank your subject matter experts for their valuable contributions! By writing an email or handwritten note, or finding a way to publically recognize or credit these experts for their contributions, you’ll be helping to build a better culture of collaboration within your organization.

The best way to communicate with subject matter experts

Learning and Development departments have always been the gatekeepers of online learning content, not only distributing but also creating the content for their organisations.

What if we told you that it doesn’t have to be this way?

One of our latest updates to the Go1 Platform puts the creative power back into the hands of your learners themselves, and we are excited to announce our Collaborative Course Creation Tools.

Traditionally when it comes to course and content creation most organisations will have a team dedicated to creating their learning material, or have contracts in place with external contractors who are tasked with the job of preparing material.