NetSpeed Blog
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
The Twitterverse
Well, I'm on Twitter. And it wasn't too hard to set up an account.
I actually read a book about using Twitter for marketing (I am such a Baby Boomer....we still read books). At any rate, the marketing book stressed that you should customize your background before you start tweeting. That slowed me down for two or three months since I actually don't have time to think about customizing the background to anything right now.
However, in our latest Virtual Facilitator Trainer Certification course, Nancy Kohutek, Director of Education at Coldwell Banker, presented her final 20-minute webinar this week on the topic of using Twitter in business. She thoroughly captured my interest again and motivated me back to go back to Twitter to figure out that customized background issue.
So I'm in the game. I attracted 10 followers before I had actually contributed anything to anyone so I feel some obligation to actually say something interesting. If you'd like to follow me, my username is cclayatnetspeed.
I plan to tweet on leadership development, customer service, virtual learning, running a business, and conducting webinars. Should be fun.
Posted by Cynthia Clay at 10:50 pm
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
The Necessary Revolution
The world is waking up. I've noticed more articles in major publications detailing the impact of peak oil, global climate change, world water shortages, and the need to rethink our own economy. Though this may seem scary, it is certainly a positive change in my view. Remaining in denial (with your fingers in your ears) may give you the illusion of stability. But getting out in front to envision a sustainable future for business and community is, well, a heckuva lot more inspiring and more rewarding.
Peter Senge (and colleagues), the author of The Fifth Discipline, has published an awe-inspiring new book: The Necessary Revolution (How Individuals and Organizations are Working Together to Createa a Sustainable World). To quote: "...there are thousands, probably millions, of...people searching for innovative ways to create a more sustainable world."
He brings many of the same tools for organizational learning that he has stressed for over a decade and applies them to the most pressing challenges that we are facing today. He completely captured my attention by sharing story after story of people who have influenced their leaders inside organizations to embrace sustainability, not just because it's a "nice to do" but because it's absolutely critical to the organization's survival and prosperity.
Coca-Cola, Dupont, BP, Xerox, Alcoa, Nike, Costco, and WalMart are all featured corporations who have made radical changes in the way they do business by seeing the larger systems in which they operate, collaborating across boundaries (Coca-Cola and the World Wildlife Foundation is just one example), and creating innovative, sustainable solutions.
If you've ever felt that these problems are too overwhelming or too big for you to take on, The Necessary Revoluation gives you the information, the tools, and the motivation to make a difference from within your organization. I highly recommend it.
Posted by Cynthia Clay at 10:33 pm
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
New Book Coming Out: Great Webinars
We've been working hard on a new book called Great Webinars: Creating interactive learning that is captivating, informative and fun. It should be published toward the end of summer. For those of you who've written a book before, let me tell you that my respect, admiration, and awe for what you've accomplished has quadrupled. It's pretty darn hard to write a compelling book on any topic, I've concluded.
Great Webinars will be focused on how to raise the bar for web workshops: from one-way communication vehicles, to interaction, collaboration, and engagement. If you've attended one of my public webinars this year on virtual facilitation, then you'll recognize many of the principles and practices that we explore in the book.
Our Virtual Facilitator Trainer Certification course is a deep dive into these same themes, culminating in your delivery of a 20-minute webinar that reflects everything you've learned about how to repurpose classroom training for engaging virtual delivery. The next offering of the VFTC course is September 2009 (back to school!).
I'll keep you posted about the launch of Great Webinars. Whether you attend the VFTC course or you read the book, we hope that you begin to create web workshops that capture attention, build skills, and lead to learning transfer and performance improvement.
Posted by Cynthia Clay at 9:04 pm
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Keep Your Ego In Check
I attended the monthly networking breakfast of the Women's Business Exchange here in Seattle this morning. The featured speaker was Connie Thompson, a local TV anchor and consumer advocate. Her talk was authentic, honest, refreshing and funny. She shared from her heart about the challenges and changes she's experienced in the TV industry, including being bumped from nighttime anchor back to consumer reporting and how she chose to respond to that change. She told a hilarious story about getting a massage in Europe in which she carefully put, what she thought was, a shower cap with holes for her ears over her head. Only after the massage was over and she was getting dressed, did she realize that she had actually carefully placed a pair of underwear on her head! Her message was to take our work seriously but be willing to laugh at ourselves and our mistakes.
As we all laughed heartily with her, I remembered my own examples of the universe helping me get perspective. Several years ago, a colleague and I gave a talk at the ASTD International Conference to an audience of 500 enthusiastic participants. They loved the session and their evaluations were unanimously, top-of-the-scale, positive. I thought I was hot stuff. My inflated ego and I caught a plane back to Seattle, with a stop-over in Denver. Imagine my shock when I walked to the gate for my connecting flight and discovered an entire team of ten people who had attended a failed company retreat I led a few months before! They were all waiting for the same flight home to Seattle. From elation to deflation in one day! I laughed inwardly at my personal smack-down and resolved to be more balanced in my assessment of myself.
Ah, yes, humility is a wonderful thing.
Posted by Cynthia Clay at 6:13 pm
Friday, May 8, 2009
Would You Like Some Feedback?
I have to give a big ole shout out to Dave Ritter at the U.S. Tennis Association. He just completed the Virtual Facilitator Trainer Certification course, along with several of his colleagues at the USTA.
Here's a sampling of the kind of positive feedback we get after this course:
"What a fabulous class it has been! I enjoyed the relevant assignments, wonderful interactivity in the sessions, adn the terrific, sincere work everyone has posted here for all of us to learn from....Thanks, NetSpeed, for providing relevant, fun learning experience.
"Thanks, NetSpeed, for a truly incredible learning experience....I thoroughly enjoyed the journey."
"I am excited to use all of my new tools to successfullly repurpose all of my webinar training opportunities to ensure learning transfer that is timely and measurable."
Dave, bless him, called me after the class ended and asked, "Would you like some feedback?"
I heartily agree to hear what he had to say. And we had a great phone call where he gave me two pages of notes--all suggestions for making the course even better for the next group of participants. I can't tell you how much I appreciated getting his suggestions. Sure, it's great to hear positive feedback. But, in the end, the feedback that really makes a difference allows us to tweak, fiddle with, and improve our courses.
I'm very aware of how much courage and commitment it takes to make that phone call and ask, "Would you like some feedback?" And I'm equally aware of how busy we are all these day--making time to share detailed feedback is a real gift.
So, thank you, Dave!
Posted by Cynthia Clay at 2:59 pm
Thursday, April 30, 2009
A Brave New World for Learning
I just attended a one-day think tank in Washington, D.C. sponsored by the ISA (the association for learning providers). It was a jam-packed day featuring several thoughts leaders, including David Cain of MediaSauce, Sandy Speicher of IDEO, and Andre Martin of M&M Mars. The participants (mostly executives in training companies) were joined by ten students from Darden College. And the event was graphically-facilitated by two amazing women who captured ideas all day in text and pictures.
I’m still processing the many questions, big ideas, and trends that were discussed. As I transcribed my scribbled notes, I was struck by the importance of the questions shared by Sandy. Pause for a moment and filter the future through the lens of these thought-provoking questions:
How might we engage learners as creators?
How might we build platforms and networks for lasting participation?
How might we engage the know how of our learners in the creation of the learning experience itself?
How might we allow for real-time feedback and interaction?
How might we help learners know how to include and incorporate the thinking of others in their work?
How might we leverage the infrastructure of existing systems to produce user-generated content?
How might we help people develop roles in their community and the world simultaneously?
How might we equip learners with the tools to take action on a big scale?
How might we prepare people to emotionally and energetically handle the “bigness” of the global information they face every day.
What if learning was always a service experience?
How might we engage the passion of learners in the creation of their experience?
How might we leverage networks to accumulate and distribute knowledge?
How might we measure learning?
How might we help people thrive in a distracted world?
How might we provide multi-sensory information?
How might we engage multiple senses?
How might we leverage visual tools?
How might we create bite-sized learning?
I love these questions because they mirror many of the questions we have been asking ourselves! From our musings on these issues over the past two years, we have developed a social media platform that seeks to provide the common virtual space for learners to congregate, create, and share their experiences and insights. NetSpeed Fast Tracks has evolved through the feedback and suggestions of our clients. We invite you to join the community and participate in the learning.
Posted by Cynthia Clay at 6:59 pm
Monday, April 27, 2009
Sustainability in Business
I just got back from an very interesting conference: The Women Presidents' Organization annual conference in San Diego. The theme this year was Sustainability and we heard a variety of speakers on this important topic. It has triggered many thoughts about how we're doing in our own sustainable business practices.
My husband and I have become very involved with the Transition movement in the US. Never heard of it? Well, that's probably about to change. There have been articles about this grass-roots phenomenon in the Christian Science Monitor, the NY Times (just last week), and, even, Elle magazine. Basically, Transition is a grass-roots movement which originated three years ago in England, led by a permaculturist, Rob Hopkins. He and his colleagues have written a book called The Transition Handbook and trained trainers around the world to lead these initiatives in their communities.
Transition is a positive, solutions-focused response to the challenges of peak oil, global climate change, and the growing economic crisis. It's all about building resilient, thriving local communities that can withstand the shocks ahead. NetSpeed Learning Solutions is co-sponsoring (with Sustainable NE Seattle) the first Transition Training in Washington State, coming up this weekend. We have 35 participants lined up and ready to learn more about how to be part of the solution in Washington State.
As I listened to Nancy Ramsey, a futurist, describe the potential cultural shocks we can expect, and marveled at T. Boone Pickens' plan for the growth of wind energy, I realized that, indeed, we are all in this together. I encourage you to find out how you can contribute constructively to help your community build it's capacity to thrive in the challenging times ahead.
Here's a video introduction on You Tube with Rob Hopkins.
Posted by Cynthia Clay at 3:27 pm
Monday, April 27, 2009
Welcome: The New Website is Here!
The new website is here! The new website is here!
I probably sound a little like Steve Martin (The new phone book is here!) but we've been working on our re-branded site for many months now. We're delighted to share it with you now. Please share your feedback with us.
On this blog, I intend to post regularly with brief musings on the state of leadership, customer service, virtual learning, and sustainable business practices. I want to avoid the trap of writing one-page essays, essentially pontificating on topics. If I think I have to do that every week, I'll stopping blogging in a heartbeat. Instead, I hope to help you get to know me, my voice, and the character of NetSpeed Learning Solutions.
I had a good laugh yesterday about the state of the Internet in our lives. Last week, I signed myself on Twitter. But, before I had a chance to create even a single tweet, I was interrupted by other work demands. (It's a sad day when you don't have time to micro-blog, for heaven's sake.) Yesterday, I was notified that I have my first "follower" on Twitter. Yikes! Suddenly I'm feeling pressure to say something relevant for this wonderful person who has chosen to follow me before I have even figured out what I will be tweeting. If you're on Twitter, I welcome you as a follower too. I've gotta get going now but I'll be back on this blog soon.
Cindy
Posted by Cynthia Clay at 3:16 pm