It is widely accepted that technology advances in recent years are shaping the future of retail. Retailers no longer have one brick and mortar connection point with customers. Rather retailers (large and small) are using both physical and multiple digital channels to stay engaged with customers. The Medium is the Message in Retail Training…
On-the-job training is not restricted to use on the retail floor. The principles described in this article are applicable to any industry or work environment to ensure consistent results from the use of on-the-job training. The Right Approach I sometimes refer to on-the-job training approaches as “Sit with Sam,” “Follow Fred,” or “Watch Wanda.” The…
I heard a conference speaker once say that their biggest training challenge was getting their theme park employees to tuck in their shirts and pull up their sagging pants. The host of the quirky Been My Pleasure YouTube channel (for food service professionals) recently shared with me his frustration in getting some servers to understand…
Welcome to week two of 12 on our journey through the Design for the Greater Good Instructional Design online course. This week, we focused on the ‘Analyze’ phase of the design process, learning more about both the learners and the instructional opportunity there. Empathy and eLearning Design The main approach this course uses is called…
I vividly remember an old television game show called Name that Tune in which contestants would guess how many notes it would take them to recognize a song when played. The goal was to bid on the lowest number of notes that would lead to success in naming the tune and winning the game. A…
I was recently having lunch with a former client contact and reminiscing about the project we had worked on together. In the course of the conversation, I asked how training is viewed at the retailer for whom he currently works who happens to have a rather large training department. You might imagine my surprise when…
I caught the pilot episode of NBC’s newest sitcom Superstore, which is about employees who work at the fictional Cloud 9 megastore. While I would describe the sitcom as a satirical look at the world of retail, professional TV show reviewers use the word dysfunctional to refer to the dynamic among the Cloud 9 employees….
Oscar winners and great training have more common ground than you might initially think. See what qualities these two share and how you can get on the path to creating training that lines up with an Academy Award-winning film. They Stir Up Emotion Oscar winning movies and actors are highly acclaimed for their ability to…
Whenever we work with a new client to develop eLearning courses, one of our topics of discussion includes what level of freedom they want their learners to have navigating the course. Is the learner able to skip around and visit any part of the course in any order? Or should the navigation require them to…
Did you see Lady Gaga sing the national anthem at the Super Bowl on Sunday? We did, and we were pretty impressed. But this also got us thinking about context. Isn’t it interesting that this performer, known for her crazy outfits (like a dress made out of raw meat), wild, sky-high hair, and bold statements…
