People Process Technology Blog

Why We Sold Our Building and Went Totally Virtual

Posted by: Jonena Relth, President and Leadership Evangelist

 

Ok so that was fun!  I’ll let you know when the podcast is available.  If you ever have the opportunity to record a podcast while in Second Life, give it a shot.  Caleb Booker and Tweet.tv were great.  They helped me feel comfortable and set the stage. 

To view the presentation: http://api.treet.tv/media/vwk_001_15feb10_169c.mp4

 

So here's a plug for the program, “Virtual Worlds Keynote” with Caleb Booker. http://www.calebbooker.com/blog/  This young man has potential and I know he can help you with your Second Life needs.  I’m hooked!  Jonena

 

No Adult Left Behind

Posted by: Lynnda Joyce, Manager of Business Development

 

It all started about ten months ago when I kept bumping into all this chatter about virtual worlds. There seemed to be a growing interest in Second Life®. I began pondering such questions as: What the heck is Second Life®? Followed by: Why should I care? It turns out that Second Life® is an online 3D virtual world used by business people worldwide to communicate, network and learn. I discovered that many academic and corporate universities use Second Life® because it’s much more personal and interactive than traditional distance learning.

 

Inasmuch as I have the luxury of working for a full-service consulting firm specializing in employee performance improvement, I was afforded significant mentoring by my VP of Learning Technology in getting situated in Second Life® and acquiring the skills and comfort-level I needed to use it to my advantage. Once I started networking, I met many business professionals, mostly in the training and development space, who all seemed to have a common perspective. They got into Second Life®  because: a) it's free; b) it saves significant budget dollars in reaching geographically dispersed learners; and c) it’s so much more engaging than web-based training or online meeting products (GoToMeeting; WebEx).

 

The good news? Help is available to you too! Allow me to retrace my steps. I started by attending a free webinar called “Get Virtual! Second Life® for Newbies”. This webinar, offered every month, is a guided tour of why Second Life® has become the fastest growing virtual world. It’s where I learned why businesses are jumping into this new medium to improve their communications, launch innovative strategies, reduce costs, and create new growth opportunities. The next session is scheduled on March 3 at 10:00 am PST. Register here.  

 

Totally jazzed with this newfound knowledge, I went to http://secondlife.com/ and clicked on “get started” for the free download and created an avatar. Second Life® provides an orientation at no cost. Personally, I found it to be a bit confusing. I wound up attending our “Second Life® Series: Orientation 101 - Your First Steps” session where I was taught step-by-step how to navigate and explore in Second Life®. The next session is scheduled for March 11 at 1:00 pm PST. Register here.

 

After a total investment of about 3-hours ramp-up time, I was steady on my virtual feet and ready to get down to business. I started attending our bi-weekly “Learning Innovation Meetup in Second Life®” meeting held at our virtual conference facility for Human Resource, Organizational Development, Learning, and Business Executives as well as professional training designers. The next session will be held on March 18 at 8:15am PST. Register here. These brainstorming sessions have given me the opportunity to meet people all over the US and Europe who freely share their experiences and expertise. 

 

I rounded out my education with a "Workshop: Second Life® Facilitation" where I honed the skills to facilitate a presentation, large and small group discussions, and engage an audience for full participation in the virtual environment.  The next session is scheduled for March 25 at 1:00 pm PST. Register here.  

 

The journey has been fun and has prepared me to keep pace with my peers who have embraced new technologies to stay effective and competitive. My advice? You’ve got to come and check out Second Life® for yourself. Then comment on this blog so others can benefit from your experience. For more information, please email me at lynnda.joyce@tbdconsulting.com or call (480) 755-2252.

Being Virtual Without Being a Recluse

Posted by:  Lynnda Joyce, Manager of Business Development, TBD Consulting, Inc.

Many of my readers may not know what a forward-thinking company TBD Consulting, Inc. is. We are completely virtual. That’s right; no bricks or mortar here. Some of us live in the same city. Some are scattered throughout the US.

 

Being a full-service, consulting firm specializing in employee performance improvement: performance management; employee engagement and process effectiveness, our internal communication style and team work ethics are commendable. Minute-by-minute outreaches on Windows Live Messenger and frequent GoToMeeting sessions keep us in-sync and current.

It’s our passion to assist colleagues and clients to increase efficiency and reduce costs through use of Web 2.0 and virtual technologies. I was thinking this morning as I attended one of Mike Abrams' monthly “Blogs, Wikis and Social Networking, Oh My! Which Do I Choose for My Training?” webinars (yes Mike, I was multi-tasking) how far I’ve come. It’s fascinating to me that a person like myself, articulate to a fault (don’t call me “chatty”) can spend so much time home alone with the dog and concurrently have so many productive exchanges each day.

As a frequent participant in Mike’s webinars, I’ve “partaken from our own purple Kool-Aid.” Not a day goes by that I don’t reach out to friends and family on Facebook. I have a growing list of more than 100 contacts in LinkedIn and keep up to date with industry trends via discussions in the 34 LinkedIn groups I joined. I post Twitters and follow other Twitter comments. And needless to say, I blog.

 

Some days I never quite make it out of my jammies, but thanks to the Internet, I discover new business opportunities (Google? Please, that’s so five minutes ago), meet potential clients, and network with industry colleagues. It’s a new millennium way of life.

 

Not only are Mike’s “Blogs, Wikis…” webinars highly informative, they’re free. If you haven’t done so already, I encourage you to attend. Check this link for the next session: http://www.tbdconsulting.com/EventsTable.aspx. I look forward to “seeing” you there!

TBD Consulting, Inc. Expands Its Second Life® Presence

Posted by: Lynnda Joyce, Manager of Business Development

On Wednesday, December 3, 2008, from 8:00 am to 9:30 am PST, TBD Consulting, Inc. will open the virtual doors of our Learning Innovation Island in Second Life® to host a free workshop on “Coaching People Through Difficult Change.” Everyone is welcome. Participants must have an avatar prior to joining this class. If you need assistance obtaining an avatar, or have other questions, please contact Mike.Abrams@tbdconsulting.com. Class participants will be given access to a safe, private area in TBD’s proprietary facility in Second Life®. This course is intended for real-life business users of Second Life®.

Our facilitator, Esther Groves, is a Senior Consultant specializing in organizational development and leadership. She is currently facilitating “Advanced Coaching for Leaders” via a virtual classroom. According to Esther, “Dramatic and life-altering change defines the reality of our world today. People are unsettled not only in their professional lives but in their personal lives as well. In an attempt to find solid ground in times such as these, people may think and act in ways that seem irrational or counterproductive. As leaders, business partners and consultants, we are often in a position of helping others navigate through a confusing maze of events and options in a way that produces clarity and forward motion.” The session will be ideal for Directors, Senior Managers, Managers, Supervisors, Team Leaders and Consultants in every industry.

Technology is Not a 4-letter Word

Posted by: Lynnda Joyce, Manager of Business Development

 

I was born shortly after the “baby boomers” and long before the “millenniums.” When I was in college, the latest technology available to me was a portable, manual typewriter with erasable bond paper!

 

Fast forward to 2008 and here are a few of the many things I’ve learned:

·         Technology doesn’t have to be expensive.

·         Technology doesn’t automatically put you in danger of identity theft or hacking of your intellectual property.

·         Technology doesn’t have to be difficult to learn.

·         Technology does help you to communicate with a broader audience, meet new business partners, and manage every aspect of your personal and professional life more efficiently.

·         Technology does help you to be well-informed of the new trends and competitive challenges in your industry.

·         And, most rewardingly, as a professional development consultant, technology makes training more affordable and considerably more interesting and productive to learners.

 

Years ago, we professional development folks used to ponder such questions as “how can you really measure the ROI of your training programs?” Now we have tools for that, with robust, real-time reporting of vital metrics (see Solutions). We used to fret over best practices to keep learners engaged and stimulated in training. Now we have WebEx, GoToMeeting, interactive webinars and Second Life^TM sessions that keep the message interesting and drive home new information with crystal clarity.

 

Many of us “more seasoned” individuals need help to break through our resistance to new technology. We need to be reassured that it’s safe and that we'll be able to figure out how to use it to meet our objectives. I am not one to just “play around with it and figure it out.” If you’re of the same mind, you need to read my mentor’s blog, Mike Abrams. 

 

Today I embrace the perspective of Steve Ballmer, Chief Executive Officer of Microsoft Corporation, “The number one benefit of information technology is that it empowers people to do what they want to do. It lets people be creative. It lets people be productive. It lets people learn things they didn't think they could learn before, and so in a sense it is all about potential.”

 

So the next time you consider cussing at technology that you don’t understand, I encourage you to reach out to a mentor like I did and get some training.  Once you’re over the hesitancy phase, you’re likely to become as excited to embrace technology as am!

Webinars Stretch Training Budgets

Posted by: Lynnda Joyce, Manager of Business Development

 

I just read an interesting article written by Brian Summerfield and published in the October 2008 CLO magazine. Summerfield sites a common concern, “While it’s always important for learning to be — and be perceived — as a critical factor in business success, that’s especially the case in a down market…the wrinkles become more apparent. Good times cover up a lot. When times are tough, every sale is more essential, and every person’s skill set is more essential.”

 

In my onion, we need to do everything we can to keep associates facing forward rather than dwelling on current economic concerns. We need to continue to develop skills that will bring large returns in the long-term.

 

TBD Consulting is turning to new, highly effective and minimal cost Web 2.0 and Web 3.0 technologies for our webinar series. Two of the most popular complementary webinars have been: “Blogs, Wikis and Social Networking, Oh My!  Which Do I Choose for My Training?” and “Get Virtual!! Second Life™ for Newbies.” This month’s participation rate was the highest ever.

 

And once you get your feet wet with the introductory webinars, we hope you’ll see value in attending our more advanced webinars which are offered at a very reasonable cost.

 

We email webinar schedule updates weekly and we’d love to have you join us. If you’d like me to add you to the invitation list, contact me directly at lynnda.joyce@tbdconsulting.com.

Millennials – It Needn’t be “Us” or “Them”

Posted by:  Jonena Relth, President

I had an interesting conversation with a senior executive the other day that took me back to the days of trying to convince my parents that my music was just as good or better then theirs.  Never mind the fact that it was loud and that I didn’t always understand the lyrics!  They didn’t like my music, but I was going to play it anyway – no matter what!  (And you know what, they got the same rhetoric from their parents about their music!)

If your organization is hiring, you’re most likely interviewing Millennials or Gen-Yers (those born between 1980 and 1994). What we need to remember is that they often behave differently in the hiring process and workplace than Boomers or even Gen-Xers - and different to them is a good thing.  At times we find them sloppy, undisciplined and even unwilling to follow our rules.  Well folks, it’s time for corporate leaders to embrace these new, creative employees.  They will be the future leaders of our companies and our nation, so we must learn to maximize this diversity in our organizations.

Because of their youth, Millennials will come up with new, innovative strategies that will help our organizations grow.  They know more now than we did at their age, and they are ripe to share what they know as well as soak up all that we know. 

As opposed to some of us lucky Boomers who came home to cookies baking in the oven, most young people have grown up with two working parents and have had to fend for themselves after school.  Watching younger siblings and doing their homework on their own was likely their norm.  The bottom line is that Millennials have had to grow up faster than we did and they have made their own norms, with independence being one of those norms.  Combine this with the changing beliefs and historical influences in our world, and voila – we must rethink the way we manage them in the workplace.

When mismanaged, these differences result in unnecessary poor performance, low morale and costly turnover.  But when properly managed, these employees show us that they really want the same things we do.  They just have a different way of showing it!  They want to feel that their contributions are valued and that what they bring to the organization will help it grow and prosper.  Additionally, they want to be promoted within our organizations, just like we do. And they will, too!  They have grown up with technology and learn faster than we ever dreamed was possible.

The challenge for traditional companies will be how quickly we can adjust our training to meet the learning styles of this new generation.  Gone should be the days when new hires sit though weeks of new hire training without having the opportunity to jump on our computer systems and take them for a ride.  We need to redesign our training to include more self-discovery learning using Web 2.0 technology.  Virtual worlds, like Second Life, will become content-rich environments for people to learn and share from one another.  Millinneals are experts at social networking - how many young folks do you know that don’t use email, IM, texting, and MySpace as their main mode of communication?

Many companies like TBD Consulting are already reaping the rewards of utilizing Web 2.0.  So move over Boomers and Gen-Xers – this energetic new group of employees is here to help us move our organizations forward.  Our leaders plan to learn as much about them as we can so we can help them grow into our leaders of the future.

What is your experience with Millinneals?  Share your best-practice leadership techniques with us.  We'd love to hear your ideas.

NEW Blog Launch - Learning Technology Focused

In looking at the blog postings we have coming up, it became clear to us that we will be filling our regular blog up with Web 2.0, learning technologies, virtual worlds and other tech type things.  So, rather than have too many diverse topics in one blog, we have split my learning technologies-focused brain out into another blog, while Jonena, Esther and the rest of our leadership team will continue to post items regarding performance improvement, leadership and general management topics.  This will enable us to bring real focus to each of the blog topics and not gets things too mixed up.  We will occassionally have some cross-posts to let you know about some interesting things being posted on the other blog.

The new blog may blog may be accessed here: http://tbd-consulting.typepad.com/learningtechnology/

Hope you enjoy this format as you did the other. Please do share this blog with co-workers and friends and be sure to make suggestions about topics you'd like to see explored.  I'm happy to go out and get my virtual fingers dirty researching and exploring learning technologies you'd like to learn more about.

Learning Innovation Island Breaks Ground in Second Life™

Posted by: Mike Abrams, VP of Technology

We’ve broken ground on an exciting new step in bringing new learning experiences to life.  Well…virtual life…Second Life™ to be specific.  Several months ago, TBD Consulting built its first building in Second Life™ and began experimenting and exploring the accelerated and innovative learning space. 

Now we move into our public phase of exploration of new learning models by a dramatic expansion of our space in Second Life™.  The new space is called Learning Innovation Island.  This link is to a location inside of Second Life™ and you must be a registered Second Life™ user to access it.  Registration is free at http://www.secondlife.com.

Learning Innovation Island, located at Learning Innovation Island is in Phase Two of development right  now, but it’s open to the public to come in and watch it being built.  You may wander through our corporate building before the furniture and artwork come in, have a seat in our quaint waterside gazebo, visit the future home of the Learning Innovation Exposition Center or take a ride on a swan.  What!!?? Ride a swan...yes. 

The purpose of Learning Innovation Island is to provide a place to experience the integration of various web technologies as learning tools.  These integrated systems of learning will help drive learning effectiveness, increased interaction between distance learners, peer-to-peer facilitated education, and stronger reinforcement/retention of learning. Some of the technologies to be in use will be Wiki’s, blogs, social networking sites, Second Life™ and websites.

Phases of Construction:

·          Phase 1 – Terraforming – From a raw, flat piece of land to a serene valley lake surrounded by green mountains. The transformation has begun.

         

·          Phase 2 - Building Constructionand Landscaping – Developing the buildings that will house our innovative learning technology experiences, our art gallery and corporate meeting spaces. A few trees, grasses and artificial intelligence swans in the lake should help make a nicer environment.

·         Phase 3 – Furniture, artwork, pens and pencils. (that’s a joke..laugh). This is the real move-in activity. You’ll hear such things as “move that picture a little higher” and “no, I like the markerboard over there, closer to the tree.”

·         Phase 4 – Partner Buildouts - We are featuring our partnerships with other learning technology companies to showcase their projects as well.  Great way to jog those creative juices.

·         Launch – Hmm..well who knows, maybe we’ll have a ballroom dance where your avatar can socialize, have some sushi, take a tour, maybe even a champagne toast. For you current Second Life™ users you know there will be some freebies too of course

So…are you curious? You can find me in Second Life™ as “Milford Revnik” wandering around managing the development project.  Stop by and say hi.

Leadership and Online Games

Posted by: Jonena Relth, President

As learning consultants, we are always on the lookout for new, innovative ways to help our customers revitalize their leadership training and improve their employee engagement at the same time.  And in today's world, this means thinking outside the box.  To that end, we've created Learning Innovation Island in Second Life™ to showcase creative, new training and communication tools that will entice our trainees to stretch themselves beyond the "tried and true" and learn in new ways with the likes of virtual networks and gaming.

The May 8th issue of Harvard Business Review has an interesting article, Leadership's Online Labs, that recaps the findings from a study conducted on the correlation of leadership and online games.  I found the article intriguing as well as motivating for where TBD needs to be in the months and years to come.  Let me know what you think!

http://harvardbusinessonline.hbsp.harvard.edu/hbsp/hbr/articles/article.jsp?ml_action=get-article&articleID=R0805C&ml_page=1&ml_subscriber=true

And, in case you don't have time to read the entire article, here are some points that may be of interest to you.

The study was conducted by Seriosity where a team of half-dozen veteran players, with more than 50,000 hours of cumulative experience, observe and record the actions of leaders in this "new learning environment." The 8-month study also included interviews with more than a dozen prominent gamers about their leadership endeavors in this arena.  A follow-up survey with both gaming and business leaders helped validate some of the findings and suggested how they might be translated to fit real-world corporate experience.

Two of their conclusions about the future of business leadership are:

• Ten of millions of people are honing their leadership skills in multi-player, online games.
• The tools and techniques they are using will change how leaders function tomorrow - and could make them more effective today.

As I have watched the digital world tease us with its offerings in the past, I am cautious yet anxious to see tangible ways for the digital medium to truly "rock our world."  Virtual worlds are here and ready to be exploited by those who are prepared to take on the razor's edge of technology and be the first to not only innovate, but blaze a trail.  Companies jumping in at this point, will make the rules for everyone else.  Where do you want to be?  Ahead of the pack or behind?

 

I'd really like to hear from you!  Agree or disagree - that's how we learn from each other!

 

Ask about our newest project, Learning Innovation Island in Second Life™

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Iru/37/167/24