Archive for the 'Career & Personal Development' Category
07-03-2008
Can anyone recommend easy to use software that will help me make a short training module?
I am looking to build (and I do not program) an introduction to a new product. I would like to be able to put some video in place with voiceover and then have a q&a type overlay… Any ideas?
Answers:
By Brian Foster
Have a look at Camtasia Studio.
Links:
Captivate is one of the best. Adobe provides templates that will help you develop high quality eLearning.
Links:
- http://elearning.b2bmediaco.com/issues/winter07/winter07_featuredstory_1.ht…
- http://www.adobe.com/products/captivate/
By James Wheat
Another choice would be Articulate (pronounced like the verb, not the adjective).
To add to what others have said:
Camtasia is good if you want to create a video of your compute screen and package it for replay on other computers. You can download a free trial for 30 days at http://www.techsmith.com/camtasia.asp?CMP=KgoogleCStmhome.
Captivate is a great tool and allows you to build simulations of the product. It is a bit more involved than Camtasia and does cost more Camtasia. You can also get a 30 day trial by going go http://www.adobe.com/products/captivate/.
Articulate is a very powerful tool. But if you are not going to be building training or product demos the price (over $1,000) is just to much to pay for a casual product. Articulate offers a 15 day trial, which is found at http://www.articulate.com/?gclid=CLX-wPzRpZQCFSgtagodkDzAtA.
You may want to consider WebEx, or a similar service. WebEx has a 14 day trial. If you expect to do this once and never again, you could just start a WebEx session, share your application and/or desktop and record your demo using the WebEx tools. You could even schedule a live class with WebEx to create a different dynamic in the recorded session. For the occasional trainer, WebEx may be your best approach.
There is no simple answer. It all hinges on what your time frame is, what your learning curve is with the technology, your available budget, and your time to workout the ideal flow through your new product so the demo shows off your new product well.
Links:
- http://www.techsmith.com/camtasia.asp?CMP=KgoogleCStmhome
- http://www.adobe.com/products/captivate/
- http://webex.com/
Please contact these experts provided from the field of training and coaching…
They have written books, and run their own coaching academies/institutions.
Ajay Merchant also suggests these experts on this topic:
By Red Resener
This question sounds two fold…. First you could capture canned sims showing off your new product (Im guessing this is some kind of software) with Captivate/Camtasia, both are timeline driven and will allow you to add hi-lights and call-outs as well as allow you to edit voice-overs and other goodies like that. But, you will need to understand a little bit about video editing to make quick work of either app.
Second, you will need to know a bit about delivery. Before you export your course from either CAP/CAM you will need to ask yourself — is this going on CDROM, into an LMS, or just web-based delivery?!?!?
If you are unsure about any of this I would be happy to talk you thru it, or you could call Steve Conrad or myself at MEDIAPRO. 425-483-4700
Links:
Red Resener also suggests this expert on this topic:
By John Jamison
Hi Barbara, I use Articulate to put something together rather quickly, as it ties directly to PowerPoint which you use to actually build the piece. When I want something more robust…with more interactivity and interest, I use a program called Mediator, from Matchware.
I currently use Captivate to create rapid e-Learning. It is user friendly and is a great tool for creating software simulations or soft skill branching scenarios. You can insert videos (which get converted to Flash format for usability) and easily create interactive quiz questions for Q&A. As someone mentioned earlier, there are several templates available which you can easily change to your own company branding. As well, you can import PowerPoint slides or files for easy conversion.
Additional websites which may be helpful include Captivate tips, Tutorials on Adobe Developer Center and a well known Captivate blogger:
Links:
- http://www.raisingaimee.co.uk/
- http://www.adobe.com/devnet/captivate/
- http://blogs.adobe.com/silke.fleischer/
By Rob Phillips
I recommend CaptureCam Pro.
http://www.cintinel.com/
you need Adobe (macromedia) authorware 7
Links:
There are so many factors that would hinge on a good fit for you on the product side.
What is your budget?
What is your proficiency with learning technologies?
Do you need a host platform?
What type of learning activities are you looking to include in the learning?
I would be happy to discuss this with you and recommend whatever I can to you.
Links:
Try Jing, it records your screen actions (you can limit what on your screen is recorded) and your voice, so you can give a demo. The limit is 5 minutes per video. The tool also enables quick screen grabs of whatever you want on your screen. We’ve used it with great success. Oh, and it’s free and easy to use.
Links:
By Peter B. Giblett MBCS, CITP, LLB
I would echo Brian’s recommendation. Camtasia Studio is easy to use and inexpensive. Go to the Tech Smith website.
By Sanjay Vyas
CamStudio is similar to Camtasia and Captivate but its free. You can create AVI or SWF of your screen movement (including mouse and keyboard) annotate them with speech balloons and do a voice over.
Links:
Look up www.epiance.com
By Jack Jensen
I also vote for Articulate (www.Articulate.com). To see the result of incorporating video into an Articulate lesson, go to www.AmerSolutions.com/rt2v (2nd link below).
Links:
Posted by webmaster in Answers, Technology, Business Development, Career & Personal Development | No Comments »
06-22-2008
Work/life balance
This is an interesting topic to me since I manage a team, but it is also of interest because it means so many things to so many people. I am especially interested in hearing about this topic from a management perspective (either through your own experiences as a manager, or through your own observations). What does this concept of balance mean to you, does it even exist and in what situations have you seen it work best across a team? How has it been measured?
Thanks for sharing your thoughts regarding these questions!
Answers:
By Peter B. Giblett
It is important to have a balance in all things. Work is no different. You can be dedicated to your work without working 80 hours a week.
Having a life outside work is essential in refuelling the body and mind in order to face the next work challenge.
There are times when work takes priority. I have a couple of times worked all weekend (till 3am Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and sometimes Monday when it is a holiday weekend) in order to ensure a project goes in on time. However this should only occur once in a while, you do not want to do that every week, it will not do you or the corporation any good.
Posted by webmaster in Uncategorized, Answers, Ethics & Etiquette, Career & Personal Development | No Comments »
06-19-2008
Seeking advice regarding network meetings (Question to Happen Network)
Hi all,
I am NOT a natural sales person, but over the years I think that I have done a pretty good job of selling myself and my personal skills and knowledge.
I have been getting stronger and some of the sales person type skills, and have leveraged many things to great advantage. However one thing still eludes me when making networking calls, and this is where I thought some of the salespeople in the group could help.
So you set out, make you calls, and after leaving a dozen messages you get through to the individual in question. You proceed to have a good conversation, then attempt to setup a meeting in order to elicit network contacts that may be able to help. It is at this point that the person on the other end of the line says something like:
‘I do not have any contacts in this area (that will be able to help you).’
In other words – I will not open up my address book to you. I have had this happen on 5 or 6 occasions. I know there must be something I can say that will break them down at this point, but I would like some assistance from you folk on this point. Essentially I need to get over this hurdle in the most effective way possible – from now on “OK, Thank you” is not an option.
Please keep responses open as I am sure others will wish to learn from this discussion.
By Peter B. Giblett
Answers:
I am not a natural sales person - I make great efforts to do the right thing for
the right reason at the right time.
When the conversation gets to the point you refer to and you get that response,
what have you offered in exchange?
In any sale, there is an exchange of values; ie: generally we think of money
exchanged for a product or service.
What did you offer in exchange for the names or help?
I try to offer something such as help on using LinkedIn or an offer to provide
assistance using my skills and talent.
Note: don’t suggest a price for this - it is presumed you will be paid and will
negotiate something at that time
Networking is not about getting dividends immediately, however, if you’ve
started the relationship on a good path, it may pay off in the future.
If you part mutually feeling good, the other can think about your request and
hopefully will help as they see an appropriate situation.
It’s a numbers game and you have to put out more than the other person as your
needs are more urgent (at least to you 
).
I hope this provides some food for thought. If you want to talk more about it -
give me a call. The Dr is in today.
Good Hunting,
In any networking situation, you can offer your huge HAPPEN network of
professionals in exchange for his network.
Hope this helps!
I will share what I learned at a networking workshop that I went to. The person said, “do not ask for a job, do not ask for references (they probably do not know you anyway), do not ask for referals.
Ask for information. People generaly like to help. They also like to talk about themselves and what they know, I have changed my approach and found it to be more successful.
Best Regards,
My personal opinion is to not ask for the contacts over the phone. Try and schedule a meeting to gain insight and suggestions from the individual, not using them as a means to the end. Once you are face to face and have built up a good rapport, either you can ask if they have any suggestions on how you could get some more info in a specific area or ask if they know someone that might would be of value for you to speak with.
When I have gone to ‘informational’ type meetings, I don’t ask and often the people offer the help anyways.
My two cents….
Peter, an insightful question so thank you.
First I must commend you for realizing this is a stumbling block for you, and then for realizing that it might be so for others, and thus sharing your question with the group. It takes a rare individual to act in such a manner, and I am thrilled to be associated with you through HAPPEN! Your search will yield some fine results!
Although there may be many causes for this comment, I offer the following questions for you to help in a self assessment.
1) Are you giving too much away before you try to set up the meeting? Do you implicitly or explicitly ask your target to open their rolodex to you before you’ve fully secured their trust? If the answer to this question is ‘yes’ or ‘maybe’, then try setting your objective for the meeting a little lower. Ask them for an informational meeting - you’re assessing the opportunities in their industry (unless you’re already acknowledged as an industry expert) - you’d like their feedback on your qualifications vis a vie these opportunities - any advise they’d give a new person starting out in the industry, etc. Go to the meeting armed with lots of questions with the goal of getting half of them answered, and present a professional image throughout. If you’re successful at this, then your target will open their rolodex to you with a name or two.
2) If the answer is ‘no’, then what reason have you given them to meet with you? Bryan and Dennis have offered two really good suggestions, but you have learned some interesting things about the world and your industry during your transition that gives you street credit with your target so dangle some bait for them. Offer to review your findings with them; is there some competitive information you have learned that you can share without revealing any confidential information?
3) If the answer is still no, then you can always try the ‘Hail Mary’ question of all questions - Do you know anyone who does?
Happy hunting! Please let me know if this helps.
Posted by webmaster in Personality, Networking, Career & Personal Development, Questions | No Comments »
06-09-2008
What Attributes do Tech Pros Appreciate Most in an IT Manager?
Chris Fisher’s answer:
In my experience, technical professionals tend to appreciate the following traits in an IT Manager:
* Technical competence: Managers don’t need to be experts at everything but technical professionals tend to appreciate someone who understands a wide range of technical concepts and the common pitfalls, jargon and skills associated with each.
* Contacts: Managers are expected to have a reasonable range of contacts they can call upon to assist in difficult situations, or to help bounce ideas off of.
* Trust: IT pros like to know they’re going to be supported to make the right decisions and the opportunity to be able to learn from their mistakes. They usually don’t mind being challenged to think outside the square, but hate being second guessed.
* Support: IT is in my mind the single most rewarding industry on the planet, but technical professionals still need to know they have someone they can talk to when the going gets tough. No matter how busy an IT Manager is, it’s important they’re available to support their staff.
* Vision: To use the old cliche, no-one enjoys fighting the same fires every day. It’s important to have a vision of where you want to take IT for your company. A technology roadmap is a very powerful tool to be able to focus a team on goals that will move the company forward. Just don’t forget to take people along for the journey.
I hope these are useful in some way.
Peter’s answer:
In my experience (having grown from techie to manager) it would have to include those suggestions plus the ability to:
Identify a Vision: This starts with common business goals and plans and allows IT team members to support business achievements.
Technical competence: The manage does not need to be an expert, but they do need a good understanding of how the technology will function, and what the likely pitfalls are.
Management backup: Provide support for your team when identifying new work within the business community and ensure that IT is not the last one to be told. The manager needs to say a simple “No! You cannot start doing activity X on Y date because there is not time to resolve all the problems in that time. (sure you may not be successful, but you must try).
A wide vocabulary that includes specialist business speak as well as tech-speak (and sometimes act as translator). Have you ever seen a DBA and an Insurance Actuary talk to each other? For the mere mortal it is a discussion where no common ground or understanding can be reached.
Posted by webmaster in Answers, Technology, Career & Personal Development | No Comments »
06-09-2008
Has anyone used a CV service before? Are they any good?
By Sarah West
Peter’s answer:
I have never used a resume writing service before but have had experts look at it as part of outplacement services offered when made redundant. I too would recommend Martin Buckland as an resume writing expert, but also recommend that you look into creating you own guerrilla resume see the associated website (and the work by David Perry and Kevin Donlin).
Personally I believe that you resume has to truly reflect you as an individual. The output of the resume expert is not the end result (particularly if your former employer placed everyone they just laid off with the same outplacement company - the resume’s tend to all look the same and be very dry). BTW do not forget to use colour (conservatively) in it - this can brighten a otherwise drab looking document.
The reason for using a resume expert is to improve your chances of success - therefore you do need to test the end result before accepting it. You can do this in two ways - through recruiter you trust or via former colleagues (in past jobs).
With the recruiter I would ask them the question “Will my new resume help me get selected above other candidates for an X-type position?”
Once you have had feedback then ensure you can feed this into the final resume.
Links:
Peter B. Giblett MBCS, CITP, LLB also suggests these experts on this topic:
Posted by webmaster in Answers, Career & Personal Development | No Comments »
05-11-2008
How do you ensure that your job continues to generate value for your corporation, the marketplace, and the economy?
Much has been written about various philosophies, including Lean, 6-Sigma, and others over the years.
One common thread about the varying management philosophies is the ability to add value or save costs for a corporation. In fact the modern approach to being hired into any role seems to be based on what you personally can add in terms of a value proposition.
Taken to its logical extent every function, or role, in any organisation must add value to a specific process otherwise it is of no worth. Thus with every process we should be able to follow it and document it and be able to define the additional value each person adds to the process.
Each activity in the process chain will have a cost associated with it, and the process should be carried out in a timely manner to ensure that none of the dependent processes break down. We probably do not think of our jobs that way - I am not on a production line I hear you say, but it could be argued that in our working lives we all are.
So back to my original question with the importance of a value proposition how do we continue to ensure our job continues to add value?
Clarification added:
Whilst running any company processes must be followed. Each step in the process has a predecessor and successor. That is where our jobs come in, performing the steps in the process (of-course some of these processes can be performed automatically by computer, but others must be controlled by human intervention).
The most efficient process is one where each step adds value. Many processes have steps in them that are not part of the value chain. In theory when it comes to individual humans holding jobs certain jobs may be 100% made up of non-value steps. Surely in a recession these are the jobs that are most likely to be cut, when waste needs to be cut.
Thoughts?
Answers
What would work to generate value for your job in your under the 3 items you mentioned are:
(Corporation) Wear more than just YOUR hat. Never let a role define you as one function. If times change, so might the significance of your given role. Be an expert at what you do, but be versatile to function great as something totally different.
(Marketplace) Roles evolve now, not just stay the same. Pitch yourself as an expert of your skill set, but show significant evidence that you can lead what you are a part of now. Titles expire with the changes in the world demands & the means of survival; be more than what you are assigned.
(Economy) ALWAYS have new ideas to present on the fly that no one but you can generate unless THEY had money. Be the person that has potential to build productive services regardless of a corporation’s financial circumstances. If you had $1M you can create great things. If you had nothing but wanted to pursue a $1M idea, people will come flocking to you because they BELIEVE you can deliver.
Well,
As a project manager I’ve rallied for shutting down my own projects in favor of projects that will bring more value. There are a number of ways that value can be brought in, and not all of them readily tie back to dollars. After all there is a whole science behind trying to value intangible assets. BUT at a smaller level we can see usually the cost and earned return on activities. We can also see that for proposed activities. From there it’s usually simple math. Some activities are a net loss, and unless they lead to activities that are a gain then we should try to minimize their impact. Oh and before someone says that you don’t always know your return, we know the likely return and it’s probability. Multiplying the two together gives us a number to work with. Granted these numbers are estimates, but they work for making a decent decision.
So how do I specifically add value? I do my best to bring in a better return on investment than other people. I keep my eyes and ears open for risks and opportunities. I try to make sound decisions based on probable incomes. I try not to get emotionally tied to any one path. Today Carvel may give me more value, but tomorrow it might be Baskin Robins. I try to not vacillate between the two at an unreasonable pace, mind you, but I don’t just stay the course. I re-asses myself from time to time, I try to add to my skill set. It just makes me more valuable if I can do more. I don’t horde the keys to the shop. Rather I try to teach other people to do what I can. Granted there is a risk in having others able to do what I ca, but if you’re so valuable that you can’t be fired, then you’re also so valuable that you can’t be promoted. I draw not only on my experience, learning, and skills, but also on those around me. I grant that it’s unlikely that the cleaning staff can teach me how to manage a project… until that project is to clean something! I have learned over time that even the people who do the grunt work are very valuable. What SQL / JAVA guru wants to spend his days answering help desk calls? Sure he can answer the question, but the help desk technician is far more valuable because he wants to do it and can at a lower cost. Another way I add value is to seek and get a reasonable wage. I’d like to make several times more than reasonable, but then I would rightly be expected to do several times more than reasonable.
So in short, I add value by doing my best, adding to my skills, being happy for assistance, and being happy to assist.
Increasing Relevance of your skills to companies , market place objectives . Just like OEM suppliers work with companies in developing new products and bringing out new value in existing products , each one of us need to sit across with our boss and HR and understand what compentency are going to be in demand today and tomm .
Then develop your own and your team skills in that directions so that in any down turn this team will be high demand.
I liked the question so much, as it reflects minded & spiritual cares of your kind self.
Let me set it in numbers: Where anything equal or better than the following is excellent:
- Your Corporation: Yearly growth for your company in: Revenue of 24%, with stable margins that reflects 28%-30% of profits to assets on year-to-year.
- Marketplace: If 2% of your marketplace is telling you in writing “Thank you” for what you do.
- Economy: 1)- Pay your legalities. 2)- Spend 2.5-8% of your net profits in building & growing public SMB: agricultural, industrial & commercial initiatives, starting from the education of that three fields.
Simply, to add value to your business you should do one or more of the following:
- Improve sales volume of the product/service by selling and making more
- Make the average sale more profitable by reducing costs through better product or process design
- Make the average sale more profitable by increasing price through clever marketing, improved quality or innovative product design
For those not in production, sales or customer service the “support functions” do their bit by getting overhead down to increase profitability.
That’s about all there is. Anything that doesn’t impact these three is just window dressing.
An interesting question and some interesting questions.
My assumption is that the company has a vision/goal and objectives that will achieve the vision/goal.
For you to continue to add value, you must identify and be able to support that vision/goal. Your “job” may be internally focused ie improving a process or cost; or it may be externally focused ie increasing sales or margin.
Thinking of adding value in this context will help with the selection of what you do and how you do it.
Good luck
First and foremost I bring business. There’s no arguing with that.
From new clients
From faithful clients
From lost clients.
Training is like fashion or the music industry - topics need to be actual with a toe in the future. I actively seek change in our product portfolio, to delight our clients and make them feel they are at the forefront of personal development. This is how I add value and my company recognizes that.
When someone feels they add unrecognized value, it pays to have the courage to help employers appreciate all the value employees bring.
Before this job, I used to do Executive Search. It is therefore a professional bias to consider everything, and first of all my job and myself as in a continuous process of becoming.
The most important thing is to add value to yourself, to become better and different and happier and more fascinating. Only then can you add value to your job, family, friends and everything that makes life worth living.
The priority for value-adding should be:
1) Self
2) Job
3) Company
4) Industry etc.
Obviously employees may grow divergent from their job or company at some point. That’s OK, as long as there is development and as long as there is awareness of that development and of where the gap is. You may choose then to fill in the gap - or add value somewhere else.
Posted by webmaster in Competative Advantage, Career & Personal Development, Questions | No Comments »