#brainpickin

          Blended training, the combination of traditional on-site classroom with online self-paced training, has become very popular in the last 10 years and it can be found in very different forms and industries.

Today, we see a significant shift from on-site training to online solutions that already incorporate social features and interactive tools that are characteristic of the face-to-face approach.

Below, we share with you the 4 main reasons to opt for this type of training. Feel free to add your comments below and tell us what approach you prefer the most!

Scalability

The number of participants that you can reach only with on-site training is very limited. The blended option allows you to involve participants from across the globe and also keep up-to-date, those that did attend a live classroom but cannot do it on a regular basis.

Engagement

The live classroom is a great way to build a personal relationship with your clients, specially with the most relevant ones. Having on top of that a direct channel of communication through an online platform is essential to keep the bridge between your organization and your trainees alive.

Flexibility

On-site training as well as live-webinars have a big constrain: trainees need to commit to be present at a specific point in time. Specially when you have clients all over the world, this limitation becomes relevant. On-demand training gives them the flexibility to take the training when it is most convenient for them.

Cost Efficiency

        It is not always simple to quantify the valuable impact that training - in this case training to the sales team - has on an organization.

The 5 areas that should always be analyzed are:

Type of Sale

Certain sales cannot be achieved without the right expertise. Practice makes perfect, and training can accelerate that process. Keep track of the sales that can only be done with preparation and knowledge.

Sales Cycle

The costs of sales depend directly of the time that takes an organization to close a deal. The faster, the more efficient; and efficiency can be reached with training.

Sales Size

The bigger the size of a sale, the higher the revenue. Measure the development on the size of the deals closed based on the training that your team receives.

Sales Margin

Negotiating better terms on the same deal is the main characteristic of a good sales person. Some people are born great negotiators, but certain skills can also be acquired with training.

No Sale

                      Online learning has always shown a 10% to 20% higher drop out rate than face to face training. However, it is clear that online learning offers characteristics, such as flexibility, scalability and cost-efficiency, that makes it extremely attractive.

When it comes to online learning, the first question that rises is which method should be applied: live sessions or on-demand content. Lets take a closer look to the pros and cons of each alternative.

Live Sessions

- Engage users immediately,

- Interact with them in real time and get feedback,

- Commit users to be online at a specific time,

- Limited number of participants.

On-demand Sessions

- Flexible solution to train users anytime

- Scalable to unlimited number of participants

- Not engaging if there is no channel for interaction with instructor or other participants

Live sessions are becoming a trend again. Most companies are organizing weekly or monthly live webinars to engage their customers. But live sessions can be extremely time consuming for the instructor or organizer of the webinar and not cost-efficient.

On-demand sessions, on the other hand, allow for scalability but are often lacking on interactivity, which is crucial for the engagement of the users and successful completion of the courses.

A study performed by Sun Microsystems Inc. showed that the drop out rate in on-demand sessions decreased from 75% to 25% when users had the ability to interact, ask questions and engage in discussions.

One alternative to enhance on-demand sessions is by giving participants the option of sending questions by email to the instructor, but usually this is not enough, since the respond rate tends to be low and slow. Users need to have access to a knowledge base in order to overcome the waiting time for questions that are frequently asked.

                                                       Source: Scriberia

Research has shown that helping others and demonstrating our skills and expertise is motivating and generates satisfaction. This, however, can be different in large organizations where many employees use their knowledge as an insurance for keeping their positions: Keeping all their wisdom to themselves "guarantees" them their employment.

Having a knowledge hoarding culture within an institution, does not only slower processes and lowers efficiency, which of course generates higher costs, but also damages innovation.

So how can we create the right climate to avoid these situations and encourage the entire organization to share knowledge and expertise? 

After discussing with different institutions, there are 2 key factors to consider. First, experts within a company should be regarded as such and have a moral and a formal incentive in their performances to share what they know and train new members when they join. New members are still "not infected" by the standard processes and formalities of the organization, hence, they are the ones who can rapidily bring innovation and new ideas into a business. Second, knowledge sharing should be as simple and smooth as possible and not a hurdle. To achieve this, the right technology needs to be in place. This technology should have the standards of social media conventions that have become popular in the last years and that we are familiar with. The content should be as vivid and human as possible, hence, incorporating video and Q&As for the interaction between participants.

This is exactly where brainpickin comes into the scene, offering a simple and interactive solution to improve and motivate knowledge transfer.

By switching from a knowledge hoarding culture to a knowledge sharing culture, the benefit of the organization is substantial. This change can be easily done by focusing on those 2 key factors: Implement a framework for the modification of the behaviors and a simple inexpensive resolution of the technical needs.

       We always listen to you, dear customer, and take your feedback and requests very seriously. We want to show you that we are a young and dynamic business willing to satisfy you, and able to execute your needs fast and efficiently. 

This time we are excited to introduce Single-Sign-On (SSO). SSO is a property of access control of multiple related, but independent software systems. With this property a user logs in once and gains access to all systems without being prompted to log in again at each of them.

What does it exactly mean? SSO allows your users to learn from your online academy powered by brainpickin without the necessity of creating a new account in brainpickin or even login in, if they are already logged in in your system.

Imagine replacing all the keys by one master key that opens all the doors to your services and makes the life of your users much easier.

The main benefits of using SSO are: (i) reducing password fatigue from different user name and password combinations, (ii) reducing time spent re-entering passwords for the same identity, and (iii) allowing your users a natural flow from your main site to your online academy and vice-versa.

        Starting a new venture is full of excitement and passion for that new idea. It requires risk takers willing to execute that vision, entrepreneurs that can act in a timely manner and are determined to do anything to see the project realized.

There are several characteristics that a team of entrepreneurs should have if they want to see success at some point; for example, discipline, social skills and speed to act (check out Tanya Prive's article on Forbes for more characteristics).

One characteristic that is often not mentioned and that can be observed in all successfull ventures is the ability to pivot - the ability to recognize the need of a change from the original idea, interiorize that change, adapt the vision and execute.

All big startups that we know today went through that process: Yelp started as an automated system for emailing recommendation requests to friends until they became the "Friendster Yellow Pages", Instagram was a location-based social network called Burbn that switched into an iPhone app focused solely on photo-sharing, and even Youtube started as a video dating site called "Tune In Hook Up".

      This post is very special to us. One of the first world renowned authorities to use our system was Marshall Goldsmith. Marshall is the Winner of the Thinkers50 Leadership Award (sponsored by Harvard Business Review) as the World's Most-Influential Leadership Thinker and a best-selling author or editor of more than 30 books.

Connecting with Marshall Goldsmith was no easy task, specially because he spends more time on airplanes traveling the world than on planet Earth. We connected with him first through LinkedIn, which has helped us a lot to reach specific people, and then we connected by email with him and his assistant. Thankfully, he and his team believe in our project from the beginning.

After some planning, we found the perfect dates to meet in a beautiful studio in Downtown LA. The studio from the inside was great, but the area outside did not look so promising. When Marshall arrived, he called us 2 times to make sure he was in the right place before the driver would leave him alone!

Marshall is extremely friendly and has many stories to share! He has coached many successful CEOs, traveled the world and experienced amazing things. When he arrived the cameras were set and we were ready to start rolling. He knows how to work efficiently and execute on time, so we could move forward very quickly. The only thing that started to become annoying was when we had to pause because of planes flying above our heads and making too much noise.

During our lunch break, he delighted us with the difference on how men and women percieve guilt (apparently men don't even know what that means, while women suffer from it) and his story of doing the military training to become a pilot (the same that Tom Cruise did before filming Top Gun).

We invite you to learn the same Leadership technique that Marshall Goldsmith teaches top CEOs, now available through his online academy: marshallgoldsmith.brainpickin.com.

In the meantime, we want to share with you some non-traditional questions we asked Marshall during our shooting day. Enjoy!

What was your first big achievement?

Getting listed as one of the world’s top ten executive educators in the mid 90’s in the Wall Street Journal.

What are your hobbies?

Studying religion and philosophy and spending time with my family.

What is your favorite book?

Old Path, White Clouds – by Thich Nhat Hanh.

What is your favorite song?

Over the Rainbow

What is your favorite dish?

Burritos

If you would be an animal, which one would you be and why?

A dog – dogs both give and receive lots of love.

Where would you like to spend one month of vacation and why?

In Tibet and India – to study Buddhism.

If you would only say one sentence, what would you say? 

Be happy now.

Who inspires you? 

Buddha

Do you have a routine?

Yes - I ask myself a list of questions every day.

What do you like about brainpickin?