Do you consider the impact on capacity and efficiency of your organization when developing learning experiences? Whether you measure it or not, the decisions you make as a learning professional have a direct impact on the bottom line of your organization. Time spent learning, while worthwhile, impacts time spent selling, developing products, and supporting customers.

Here's a quick example
​Imagine that you have a 30 minute elearning course, that's all employees must complete every year, to protect against legal issues. If you have 1,000 employees in your organization that's 30,000 minutes (min) per year spent training for this course.

1,000 employees X 30 min = 30,000 min of productivity
30,000 min / 60 min per  hour = 500 hrs*
500 hrs / 8 hours per work day = 62.5 work days!
*Not including any time lost due to task switching.

In 3 years time, that's 187.5 work days spent on this course alone!

The cost of this time spent may pale in comparison with the cost of a multi-million dollar legal action. However, that doesn't mean your hands are tied. You can take action to improve efficiency of your learning experiences and return capacity to your employees.

Two options to impact the bottom line

1. What do employees really need to know? Ask stakeholders if employees need to complete the same course every year. Can they take a refresher instead? Cutting even 10 minutes off of the course saves 167 hrs per year. (20 min * 1,000 = 20,000 mins | 20,000 mins / 60 mins per hour = 333.3 hrs)
2. Make it adaptive! Can employees take a quiz or complete a simulation to bypass parts of the course or maybe all of it? A 10 minute quiz, with the requirement to complete refreshers on missed topics can also reduce the time spent without impacting outcomes.

Take action now!

1. Review your portfolio: Are there programs in your portfolio that can be improved, replaced, or removed? Take the time to determine if its worth the cost to re-design them or even replace them with a non-training solution. Per Kieran King, VP of Global Customer Insight at Skillsoft, "The failure of learning transfer costs companies millions of dollars a year in wasted expenditures and probably several times that in lost opportunities." 
2. Be courageous: The next time a stakeholder asks you to create a mandatory training, without a clear impact to the business, ask them if this project is important enough to use x amount of your organizations capacity. ( x employees * y time spent learning =  z capacity).

Trust me, when you ask someone if their project is worth 500 hours of Operations capacity, they'll think really hard about their answer.

In this episode, we interview Angie Flynn-McIver, a leadership coach, author, theater director, and founder of Ignite CSP (Coaching, Speaking, and Presenting), Together we discuss how to have better conversations with our stakeholders, team members, and how to say “NO” to those tough project requests.

Take Aways:

• Positive Intent: Have a positive disposition when interacting with colleagues and discussing those challenging project requests.
• Write down your intent: What are your goals for this communication, meeting, or discussion? Write it down and bring it with you so you can come back to it if necessary.
• Know your default Intent: When challenged do you typically get angry, passive, or something else? This is your default intent. Identify this behavior so you can recognize when you are relying on it and determine whether that’s going to serve your purpose during this situation.
• Be courageous:  If you are presented with a request that requires more information, resources, people, technology, etc. to successfully complete it, be courageous and ask for it. It's OK to be up front about the capabilities of your team with the resources you have today.

Donors Choose:

In this episode, we interview Pamela Acker, an Organizational Change Strategist with over 20 years of experience helping organizations to successfully achieve their change goals. Together we discuss how to use the ADKAR methodology to enhance your learning experiences, generate desire for change, and how you can be better partners with change leaders at your organization.
​
Take Aways:

• Put people first, especially in change and learning efforts. You cannot manage change or people from a spreadsheet.
• Build a relationship between change and learning to share the knowledge of what’s going on in your organization. 
• Managers need to be better at helping people through change. Provide managers with information about the change curve and resources to help themselves and their team navigate change.
  ​

​​Check us out on istrainingtheanswer.com, Spotify, or wherever you listen to your podcasts.

Ever wonder what causes your colleagues to ask for training to solve a challenge? Why is training the answer in their minds for non-compliance with a process or procedure? Why not focus on enhancing the process, technology, or even the working environment to solve the challenge?

Join myself and Rory Sacks as we talk to professionals inside and outside of learning and development to answer L&D's most frequently asked question. Every month we'll launch a new episode aimed at helping you be more effective, responsive, and compassionate when working with your colleagues to deliver the best learning experience possible.

Check us out on istrainingtheanswer.com, Spotify, or wherever you listen to your podcasts.

As a leader with experience hiring Instructional Designers (ID), there are three tips I find myself giving to every ID who asks for feedback on their resume. 

1. Fill your resume with quantifiable achievements and outcomes 
2. Use a simple, easy to read, layout that includes a strong title and summary
3. Have a portfolio that works

The most common response I receive is "What's a learning outcome?  Do you have an example?"  In this post we'll explore where to find quantifiable learning data, compare learning outcomes vs. outputs, review how to create an effective layout, and identify what hiring managers like myself look for in a portfolio.

What is a learning outcome?
Instructional Designers help to solve business problems.  This is the value we create for an organization. We show this value by measuring the effectiveness and impact of our learning solutions.  These are known as outcomes.  Your resume should be a reflection of the outcomes you've helped to achieve for an organization.   ​It's the best way to show the value you'll bring to your next team.

Hiring managers want to see the impact that you've created in the past so they can imagine the impact you'll achieve for them.  Unfortunately many of us fill our resumes with job responsibilities and lists of training materials we've created.   These are known as outputs.  Outputs are the modules, videos, tools, and programs you've created to solve a business problem (a.k.a, achieve an outcome).   

Learning outcomes vs. outputs
Here's a simple example of a learning output vs outcome.

Output:  Re-designed the Customer Service Representative (CSR) onboarding curriculum by converting instructor led content to elearning modules.

Outcome:  Reduced time to onboard CSRs by two weeks while maintaining new hire proficiency standards.  We converted 80 hours per new CSR spent in training to time spent supporting customers.  In 2019 we returned over 2,000 hours to Operations.  Our courses received an average 4.5-star quality rating (out of 5) and the curriculum achieved an overall Net Promotor Score (NPS) of 70.

Notice the difference?  The outcome provides quantifiable data showing the impact of training outputs provided to the organization.

I don't have outcomes!
Maybe measuring learning outcomes isn't a requirement at your organization or your team is working up to that capability.  Either way, I'm sure you can find some quantifiable information to share.  Here are a few avenues to start searching for the information you need.
​

1. Your LMS:  Most learning management systems track test scores and completion rates.  Even better if it has a rating system or comments that you can pull from.
2. Survey data:  Your Learning organization is probably surveying participants at the end of a training program.  You can use this data to show what people thought of your efforts. 
3. Do the math:  Think about your last project, did you save time, reduce the need for resources, or make training more accessible?  If you flip an instructor led course to self-paced and save 100 employees 30 minutes each, that equates to  3,000 minutes (100*30) or 50 hours (3,000 / 60) returned to the organization. 
4. Ask:  Seriously, go back to the team you supported with training and ask if they have any data to measure the impact of your work.  "Last month I built a course to help CSRs learn how to up-sell X product.  How are they doing?  Do you have any data I can look at to show if there's been a change?"  You can use this data for your resume and to support the work you're doing for your current organization.
5. Other achievements:  If you're in school or transitioning to an ID role, think about the work that you've done in the past and how it's relevant to an ID role.  Quantify that information on your resume as much as possible.  Here's a great resource from the Colorado Christian University.

Example outcomes and quantifiable outputs
The following list contains examples of outputs with quantifiable information and outcomes.  I've highlighted what I consider the most important component in each.  

• Rapidly developed five elearning courses to support the transition to a virtual sales curriculum. Participants rated the courses an average 4.5 out of 5-stars.
• Developed a two week blended curriculum to support the onboarding of CSRs.  The curriculum received a 70 NPS from participants.
• Led a cross functional team to develop and launch a Learning Center website including reference guides and instructional demonstrations.  Viewed over 2000 times the demonstrations received an overall 96% approval rating.
• Increased certification scores by 10% through the creation of a practice exam and supporting micro-learning videos. 
• Partnered with Human Resources to develop training that supports employee engagement and development.  70% of participants entered a development goal into our HRIS system.
• Supported an 8% increase in customer referrals to trusted partners with a micro-learning curriculum served to CSRs over a 3 month period.  
• Led the process to transition 7,000 courses from our current Learning Management System to our learning experience platform.
• Created a monthly email digest to inform employees about valuable learning programs, supporting a 10% increase in learning library course completions in Q4 2019.

​
Optimize your layout
Refreshing the content of your resume isn't the only way to improve your chances of getting an interview.  According to an eye scanning study by The Ladders in 2018 most resumes are scanned for about 7.4 seconds in an F or E pattern.  This means that recruiters and hiring managers are quickly scanning the top of your resume , from left to right, before moving their eyes down the left side of the page for relevant information.  When they find something relevant they move their eyes across the page to the right, forming an F or E pattern.  Repeating this process until they are finished.  You can use this research to your advantage.

Capture attention
Capitalize on recruiter and hiring manager scanning patterns by doing the following.

1. Simple layout:  "Clear, simple layouts with clearly marked section and title headers.  Use bold job titles supported by bulleted lists of accomplishments."  Eye-Tracking Study, The Ladders
2. Add a title:  Use the title of your resume to tell people who you are.  Don't just list your name.  Example: I'm an engaging senior leader and experienced Instructional Designer.
3. Include a summary:  "A resume summary statement is a one to two-sentence professional introduction that you can add to the top of your resume to highlight your most valuable skills and experiences. The resume summary can help employers quickly learn whether you have the skills and background they require." Indeed.com 
4. Highlight accomplishments: I've had great success highlighting five or six relevant accomplishments and outcomes at the top of my resume.  It quickly shows my value to a recruiter and hiring manager.
5. Bold important content.  Example:  Developed a two-week blended curriculum to support the onboarding of CSRs.  The curriculum received a 70 NPS from participants. Nielsen Norman Group

Example resume
Here's the layout and actual summary I use for the top of my own resume.  The Achievements are taken from the examples above.

​Portfolios
Should you have a portfolio?  Yes.  Whether it's real or full of imagined sample projects, a hiring manager will want to see the type of work that you are capable of creating.  A strong portfolio gives them a visual representation of your work.

Three tips based on portfolios I've reviewed.

1. It has to work:  I can't tell you how many courses I've reviewed that simply do not function.  If your content doesn't function as intended it can give the impression that you don't have strong attention to detail.  
2. Images are fine: I don't need to see all the cool e-learning interactions that you've created.   A gif or video demo works fine as well.
3. Share some Context:  Give me just enough of a taste to understand the problem you are solving and your design & development skills. 

In closing
As an Instructional Designer you have the ability to create immense value for your organization.  Make sure that you are taking the time to capture that value to promote the work of your team and your own career.  Here's a quick recap and some resources to help you enhance your resume.  

1. Start measuring outcomes 
If you're not measuring outcomes today, that's OK!  Develop a plan and start now.  Here are some resources to get you started.   

• Research Kirkpatrick's four levels of training evaluation.  This is an easy way to get started and formalize the measurement process at your organization.
• Before starting a project, ask what success looks like after training is complete.  If you know what success looks like, you can work with your stakeholder to determine how to measure it.

2.  Use a simple layout

• Eye Tracking Study, The Ladders
• F-Shaped Pattern Reading Web Content, Nielsen Norman Group

3.  Have a portfolio that works

• Images are fine! Here's an eLearning portfolio example from Devlin Peck

At its core, Instructional Design is about helping people and organizations achieve their goals through learning.  Simply put, it's your job to create training that helps people to gain knowledge and skills to improve their performance and change their behavior. ​

What problems will you solve?
You're going to help solve business problems.

Notice I said "help solve".  An intricacy of the Instructional Design process is identifying when training is the answer to a problem and when it isn't.  More on that later.  
​
Example problems include:

• Software training: Creating training to educate employees on how to use new or existing technology
• New employee onboarding: Creating a program that teaches new employees how to perform their job
• Product training: Developing training that teaches employees the benefits of a new product so it can be sold to customers
• Soft skills training: Creating training on enhancing employee communication, emotional intelligence, coaching, and feedback skills
• Leadership training: Creating training for new and tenured leaders on how to lead at your organization
  
  

Why will companies hire you to do this?  Well, what good is implementing new software if nobody knows how to use it?  Additionally, a business will have difficulty growing without an effective employee onboarding program.  This is where you come into play.

You are the learning expert, not the [insert topic] expert
You will work with other team members and experts at your organization to get the content you need to develop your learning activities.  These individuals are called Subject Matter Experts (SMEs).

For example, if you're working on developing software training you'll be paired with a subject matter expert (SME) on the application.   If it's a new application, this might be someone who is actively developing it.  For existing applications, you'll be paired with a SME who's an expert at using it.  You will meet with them to gather screenshots, step by step instructions, and any details necessary for you to create your training.

Learning expert?
As an Instructional Designer you are the resident learning expert at your organization.  When you design training you will combine empathy, advocacy, science, technology, and design to create engaging, effective, and efficient learning experiences.  These experiences can come in the form of videos, reference materials, interactive self-paced courses, instructor led training (virtual or in person), and more.  

How does that work?
To start you must have empathy for your learner.  It's necessary to understand their feelings and needs so you can create a learning experience that works for them.  You will identify their needs by shadowing, interviewing, surveying, and running working sessions with them to understand their point of view.  

It's not enough to just identify the feelings and needs of your learner.  Advocacy is required in order to incorporate these needs into your learning experiences.  You will combine their needs along with adult learning theory, Instructional Design methodology, and the neuroscience of learning best practices to create learning experiences that provide value for your organization and your learner.  The application of this knowledge helps to ensure the effectiveness of your work and sets you apart from other employees that may develop training at your organization.  

You will develop and implement the experiences you design using a combination of learning technology and tools.  Examples of this technology include elearning authoring tools (Storyline, Captivate, Camtasia, etc.), graphic design applications, Learning Management Systems (LMS), social media, survey applications, and good old Microsoft Word, Excel, and Power Point.  

Even the best technology can't make up for a lack of good design principals.  That's why it's helpful for Instructional Designers to have a basic understanding of graphic and web design.  This knowledge will help you to create materials that are engaging, easy to use, and understand.  

When do you use learning technology?
Think of applications like Articulate Storyline and Adobe Photoshop as tools in your Instructional Designer toolkit.  You use them to help you create your learning activities.  Each of them has strengths and weakness that you'll need to learn so that you can use them at the right time.  Just like a carpenter knows when to use a hammer, sledge hammer, or nail gun to complete a task.

Let's continue the software training example from above.  You have decided that the training should consist of a demonstration of someone using the program and a job aid for reference as they apply this new skill on the job.  You might use Articulate Storyline to record the demo and then a combination of Microsoft Word and a screen capture tool like Snagit to create the job aid.  Word would be used to create the document and Snagit would be used for any application screenshots you included in it.  

​Sample tools and technology
The following authoring and video editing tools are examples of the technology that you'll use to create training.  Many offer free trials that you can use to build your skills.

• Camtasia - Screen recorder and video editor
  • Training tutorials
• Articulate 360 - Popular eLearning authoring application
  • Articulate e-Learning heroes community
  • e-Learning challenges - Practice your skills!
• Adobe Captivate - Popular eLearning authoring application
  • ​​Training tutorials

Learning Management and Experience Systems:
Organizations need a place to store, assign, and report out on all of the training available to their employees.  The following list includes links to some of the more well known Learning Management Systems as well as some of the newer Learning Experience Systems. 

• Cornerstone on Demand
• SAP Success Factors
• Bridge
• 360 Learning

Are you a Graphic Designer?
No, however the training you develop will be more effective if you apply design principles when creating it.  There are plenty of books and online resources to help you learn the basics.  For example, when writing this blog post I made deliberate decisions to bold and increase the font size of section headers, left align my text, and remove borders from any images.

You'll make similar decisions when creating your own materials.  Don't worry, many organizations have a brand guide to help you understand the types of fonts, colors, and imagery to use in your training.  If they don't, that's an awesome opportunity for you to help create one!

What about the science and theory?
Earlier I mentioned the neuroscience fo learning, adult learning theory, and Instructional Design methodology.  These terms can sound pretty intimidating but in reality they're just more tools in your ID toolbox to help you create great learning experiences.  Let's look at each of them and how they apply to your ID work.

​Neuroscience of Learning:

Let's walk through each step and then we'll break down how it works as part of a typical project.

Analysis:  During the analysis phase you'll collect information to gain insights into how things are done today, the results generated from these efforts, and how training can help change these results.  This is accomplished by reviewing existing processes, data, attitudes of employees, the work environment, etc.  You can gather this data by shadowing employees, running focus groups, interviewing high and low performers, creating and sending surveys, and gathering existing employee and performance data. 

Sometimes after reviewing all of this information you may find that training is only part of the solution to the problem.  Maybe the technology is inefficient, the process to complete a task is cumbersome, or the environment isn't conducive to achieving expectations.  You can use this opportunity to advocate to change these roadblocks, increasing the effectiveness of any learning experience you develop.    

Design:  During this phase you'll use the insights gained from your analysis to develop the high level flow and strategy for your learning experience.  As part of this process you'll need to write down measurable performance objectives that serve as foundation for the training.  This is where you get to combine your knowledge of learner needs, adult learning theory, and neuroscience of learning best practices to create an amazing learning experience. 

Most of this work will be done using MS Office tools (Word, PPT, Excel).  For example, your design presentation might be a 10 slide PPT deck that includes the goal, your analysis results, performance objectives to achieve the goal, high level overview of the activities necessary to achieve your goal, a short breakdown of each activity, a timeline, communication plan, and status.  

The goal is to get as much feedback and input as possible so that when you start development of your training materials, everyone is on board with your proposed experience.  It's much easier and cheaper to edit a PPT or word document than it is to re-design your learning materials. 

Development:  Once you've received approval of your design, it's time to develop the activities and materials.  This is where your authoring systems such as Articulate Storyline 360, Adobe Captivate, & Camtasia come into play.  You'll spend most of your time as an Instructional Designer in this phase.

As you create your materials they'll typically need to be reviewed and approved.  This may take a few rounds as you incorporate their feedback (if it helps to achieve the goal of the program), update your materials, and then send it back for approval.  If you're short on time, one round of review may be all that's needed.

Implementation:  Now it's time to launch your program!  This can be complex process that includes scheduling webinars and/or classroom sessions, setting up a registration site, prepping facilitators (or prepping to facilitate the session yourself), and organizing guest speakers.  Or it might be as simple as sending out a communication about your training and assigning a series of micro-learnings through your Learning Management System.  It depends on the program that you've designed.

Evaluation:  Once you've launched your program, it's time to start evaluating your outcomes to see If your training has achieved its intended impact.  You can collect this data via test scores, surveys, observation, focus groups, and any data available (performance data, customer satisfaction, NPS, etc.).

A sample project
Let's take everything we've learned so far and break it down as part of a sample project using ADDIE.  As the Instructional Designer assigned to the project you'll be expected to navigate the project team through the process of implementing the learning experience.

Training request:  Your organization is adding a new process to their software platform.  They want you to create training to support the implementation.​  

Analysis:  Meeting with your stakeholder you first identify the business need for the training.  Remember, you solve business problems!  If there isn't a business problem there probably isn't a need for training.  

Business problem:  They are adding a process to their customer relationship management application to track offers of an existing service.  The tracking is expected to improve reporting on sales of the service.  Additionally you identify the audience that needs to be trained on this new process, the timing of the rollout, who your SMEs are, and when the new content will be available for you to review. 

• You are given two SMEs to support you.  One SME is the developer creating the enhancements.  The other SME is the expert on the new process.
  • You setup time to meet with them, discuss the project, and review the process and technology. 
• You also meet with or survey your audience and their leaders to understand how they like to learn about new software updates, where they typically go to learn about the software, their past learning experiences, and their thoughts about the process.  
• Additionally, you take the time to review sales data on the service and understand the current process.  

Design:  Taking everything that you've learned so far you decide the technology process is simple enough that it only requires a video and job aid for reference.  However, per your analysis the expectations are not clear to leaders or employees on when and how the offer should be made to a customer.  You feel that a script, clear guidance within the system, QA review, and coaching from leadership will improve the success of the project. 

You put this into a PPT presentation that includes the following information:

• Your analysis: A high level overview of your findings, training, and non-training recommendation.
• Goal of the training:  Your are going to train the audience how to complete the new process using the updated technology.  Additionally, you'll enable leaders to coach their team members in support of the new process. 
• The audience:  Who they are, their location, and current experience level with the tool and service.  You have multiple audiences (new hires, tenured staff, and leaders). 
• Objectives: All the things they need to know and do in order to achieve the goal
• Learning experience: A high level overview that explains what the training will be.  For this example you'll create a video that demonstrates how to use the tool, a short test to check their knowledge, and a job aid that can be referenced when working with a customer.  Leaders will also receive a coaching guide and a live session on how to use it with team members. 
• Additional suggestions:  These are suggestions that are not part of the training but will improve the success of the project based on your analysis.  For this example, you suggest adding an alert into the system that notifies a user when they should offer the new service and quick access to a script.  You also suggest communicating expectations to leaders and employees as there seems to be some confusion amongst your audience about the process.
• Timeline:  This is a simple graphic or bulleted list that shows when you will start development, how long SMEs have for review, when the training will be communicated to the audience, and when the training will launch.
• Evaluation:  A slide that breaks down how the training will be evaluated after it's launched.  In this case you'll:
  • Survey learners to see what they thought of the training and if it prepared them to support offer the new service
  • Review their knowledge check scores to see if they learned the process
  • Evaluate learner performance data within a month to see if they are appropriately offering the new service and if the organization is achieving the results they expected
• Your Asks:  Anything you need in order to implement the training successfully that you don't have today.  Based on your expertise (Science and theory) you know that learners are more inclined to complete training if their leaders endorse it.  So you ask for a leader to support the launch, the coaching session, and include an introduction video as part of the overall communication plan.  The video will set expectations, clearly detail the value the service provides to customers, and the importance of tracking offers in the system.

Note that you may have to go back and forth a few times with edits before achieving final approval.  That doesn't mean you stop all work until sign off.  Typically you'll move forward with approved portions of the content as you work with your project team to finalize any remaining details.

​Development:   Once your design is approved by your stakeholder, you start development.  
In this case you'll use Articulate Storyline to create the demonstration and knowledge check.  MS Office to write a script for the leader who will endorse the training.  You'll ask the leader to record a video of themself using Zoom (virtual conferencing tool) and will edit it with Camtasia.  Microsoft Office and Snagit will be used to create the job aid and coaching guide.

Your stakeholder and SME(s) will provide feedback and review and approve each of these items as you develop them.  After two rounds of review you are ready to go!  The course is uploaded to your LMS and the job aid is posted to the knowledge bank.

Implementation:  With your work complete (or almost complete) it's time to start implementing the program. 

• Four weeks prior to launch of the system updates, Sr. leadership communicates the upcoming change to front line leaders. 
• Three weeks prior to launch you assign the course to front line leaders and implement the coaching session.  
• Two weeks prior to the launch of the system updates, leadership broadly communicates the upcoming change and you assign the training with a due date prior to launch.  
  • Over the next two weeks you provide periodic reports on training completion to your stakeholder so they can see whether the training is being completed on time.  These reports are pulled from your LMS.

 
Evaluation:  Two - three weeks after assignment you review your test scores and the survey to see how you did.  One month later you check the performance data to understand if learners are correctly completing the new process.  You use this information to generate a report that you share with your team, leader, and stakeholders.  This way you can see how you did but also if additional training or support is needed.

Workload
Typically you will manage your own project timelines and have a decent amount of dedicated time to focus on getting your work done.   

You might be working on two or three smaller projects, like the one above, at the same time.  Each of them will go through the ADDIE phases at their own pace.  For example, you might have one project in the analysis phase while another is in development or evaluation.  As you get into the development phase your time dedicated to each project will increase. 

If you are working on a larger more complex project, like a multi-week onboarding program, then that might be the only project in your pipeline.  
  
​What happens after you complete a project?
If it's a one time project, like our software example, you might wrap it up and move on to the next one.  If this is a program that's meant to be run continuously, then you'll more than likely spend time reviewing your evaluation data and using it to make improvements.

For example, you might find that some of your test questions need to be updated.  Maybe an activity didn't run as planned so you want edit or replace it.  This is typically where you can also find efficiencies in terms of changes that can shorten the overall timeline of your program or reduce the amount of resources necessary to achieve it.

​You can do this
When I started my career in L&D I'm what you would have called an incidental Instructional Designer.  I had zero experience in the L&D field.

I had my first taste of Instructional Design when I was asked to create and facilitate training for new customers off the side of my desk.  I wrote a few scripts and ran those virtual sessions multiple times per day, five days a week, for months.  The same content over and over again.  The process quickly became stale.  I knew there had to be a better way.

That's when I learned about Instructional design and technology.  Working together with my leader, we created and populated a learning university site.  Filling it with short video clips (the term micro-learning wasn't a thing at the time) based off of my original scripts and articles to support new customers.  Our customers loved it and I freed myself from the daily dreaded webinar.

That process ignited my passion for Instructional Design.  I consumed every resource that I could get my hands on.  My research, and continued work on the site, eventually resulted in landing a job as an Instructional Designer.  I distinctly remember sitting in the lobby of GMAC Mortgage preparing for my interview by memorizing the ADDIE model.  Eventually I went back to school and obtained my Masters degree in Instructional Technology from Bloomsburg University.
​
If you have a growth mindset, put in the time and effort it takes to learn about Instructional design, and apply what you learn, you can be successful. 

Average salary
Just in case you're wondering, the average salary (per payscale.com) in 2020 for an Instructional Designer in the United States is:

Conclusion
Hopefully after all of this you are just as interested, if not more, about becoming an Instructional Designer.  It's a career that offers the ability to solve tough challenges, be innovative, and add value to the lives of those you train and the business you support.  If you are still interested in Instructional Design, here are four resources to help you continue down that path.

• Kirkpatrick's Four Levels of Training Evaluation - Learn how to evaluate your training program's using Kirkpatrick's methodology.  A must read if you are serious about analyzing the outcomes of your programs.
• ISD From the Ground Up - Great book that I've used to help team members build a career in instructional design.
• Wired to Grow: Harness the Power of Brain Science to Learn and Master any Skill - This is on my reading list, but I've taken the author's course on LinkedIn Learning and it was inspiring.
• Slide:ology The Art and Science of Creating Great Presentations - Great book on how to develop engaging and influential presentations.  I use it as a reference when creating my own presentations.

 "I need an elearning created on our latest products that starts in three weeks.  This is essential for our Sales Reps (SRs) to achieve their quarterly sales goals.  I have approval from senior leadership to make this happen. " 

Have you ever been on the receiving end of a request like the above?  It checks a number of the boxes for a typical training project request, with some added urgency thrown in for good measure.  The requestor knows the basics; audience (SRs), timeline (three weeks), why they think training is needed (Essential to SR goals), and how they want it trained (elearning). 

It's tempting to start working on a project like this immediately and figure out the rest later.  It is "essential", senior leadership seems to be onboard, and the timeline doesn't leave you with room for much more than getting the work done.  What you may not realize is that you've just entered a negotiation.  The results of this negotiation can determine whether this program is a failure or success.

This post is inspired by the book  "Never Split the Difference - Negotiating as if your life depended on it" by Chris Voss with Tahl Roz.  ​Using a series of tactics such as mirroring, labeling, and calibrated questions Chris is able to identify the underlying motivations of his counterparts to negotiate a favorable outcome.  

​Here are four calibrated questions to help you decipher the need for and outcomes of your next project request.

1.  What's the problem we're trying to solve?  Use this question to get to the business need behind the request.  We know that SRs need help to achieve their sales goals, but what specifically is the gap we're trying to close? 

2.  After training is complete, how will we know that an employee has been successfully trained?  This question helps you get an understanding of what success looks like to the Stakeholder.  In the example above, the request is to train all SRs using an elearning course.  How can you know if an elearning course is the right strategy if you don't know what the stakeholder wants their SRs to be able to do after training is complete?  This question also helps you understand your counterparts vision.  

3.  What are the targeted outcomes?  If you don't know the target(s), how can you know whether your training program will help to achieve them?   In fact, there may be multiple outcomes that need to be achieved.  Achieving these targets may require more time and attention than your stakeholder might think.

If you haven't asked question one at this point, this is a great opportunity to use it as follow-up to this question.  This will help you to determine how big of a gap you're helping to fill.  If they're expecting a big lift, an elearning course alone may not get them there.  

4.  How will we measure the success of the program?   It's impossible to make adjustments if you don't have a way to see results over time.  If the team requesting the training does not have a way to track results, now is as good a time as any to figure that out.

​Selfishly, how can you and your team show the impact of your training program if you can't see the results?  If part of the solution doesn't include a plan to measure the outcomes, this is an opportunity to get that work started.  

Avoid asking "why"
​Asking why, can cause your counterpart to become defensive.  They already think there's a need for training, asking why just calls their judgement, or their leader's judgement, into question. ​

 
​Asking how or what, forces them to think about the reason they believe training is going to solve the problem.  Using the above example, instead of saying "Why, do we need training in three weeks on this process?" ask "How do you think an elearning course will help achieve quarterly sales goals?".   

If you are concerned that the requestor doesn't have approval for the request or the necessary backing, you can always ask leadership after the meeting.  
​
​Be proactive, create a project request form
The way that Chris suggests preparing for a negotiation is to create a one sheet or document that can be used to guide the negotiation process to a favorable outcome.  Taking this advice, I suggest that you create a project request form and use the questions above as well as the standard items (Audience, timeline, stakeholder & subject matter experts, etc.) to define the program requirements.  Keep this form handy for in the moment and planned discussions.​

Keep your cool
Having a project request form, with these questions listed, will also give you something to rely on in the heat of the moment.  This is especially beneficial when you have a counterpart who is stressed and just wants you to build the training, in the way they want, when they want it, without any questions.

Remember, this is not about you, this is just business.  The ability of your team to do their job effectively relies on your ability to get them the information they need.  Taking a moment to slow down and get your questions answered will save you the time of having to go back and ask them again later.

If you feel yourself becoming upset, take a moment and breathe or walk around.  Having a physical form to fill out can anchor you to your physical environment and stay in control of your emotions.  Amy Gallo, Harvard Business Review

Summarize your discussion
At the end of your discussion make sure to summarize the outcome.  According to Chris, you're not looking for a "yes" at the end of the summary.  You're looking to have your counterpart say "that's right".  That's how you'll know that you're on the same page. 

People say "yes" all of the time even if they mean "no", it's a false positive meant to make you both feel good in the moment.  Getting a "that's right" or the equivalent means that you've correctly summarized their position.  

A summary of the above request could sound something like this.  "Hitting our quarterly sales target is really important.  I'm glad we can work on achieving this goal together.  Based on our discussion today, our SRs need to increase their conversion rate by 10% in order to achieve quarterly goals.  You believe this is because they are unfamiliar with our newest products and they aren't comfortable selling something that they don't feel is beneficial to our customers.   You also want training to start in three weeks because leadership has guaranteed an improvement in the next six weeks. 

In order to achieve this, after training is complete all SRs should be able to explain the value of our newest products, to our customers, and be confident offering them.  We'll measure the trend on a weekly basis and can adjust the program as necessary based off of the results. 

​Is that correct? "

Granted, the above summary doesn't go into whether elearning is the right or only solution for the job but I think you get the idea.  From here, you can work with your counterpart to create a program that will meet or exceed the results you both want to achieve.

Want to learn more?
The easiest way to learn more is to buy the book  "Never Split the Difference - Negotiating as if your life depended on it" by Chris Voss with Tahl Roz.   Chris and his family also offer training and free resources on their website https://www.blackswanltd.com/.