Crash Course in Learning Theory

Crash Course in Learning Theory



• Talk to the brain first, mind second.Brain_3

Even if a learner is personally motivated to learn a topic, if the learning content itself isn't motivating, the learner's brain will do everything possible to look for something more interesting. This applies to both getting and keeping attention, as well as memory. Remember, you can't do anything until you get past the brain's crap filter! And to the brain, a dry, dull, academic explanation is definitely CRAP (regardless of how much your mind cares about the topic).


Learning is not a one-way "push" model.


Learning not oneway

Learners are not "empty vessels" waiting to be filled with content pushed into it by an expert, blogger, author, etc. Learning is something that happens between the learner's ears--it's a form of co-creation between the learner and the learning experience. You can't create new pathways in someone's head... your job is to create an environment where the chances of the learner "getting it" in the way that you intend are as high as possible.

• Provide a meaningful benefit for each topic, in the form of "why you should care about this" scenario.

Learning is much more effective if the learner's brain knows why what you're about to talk about matters. The benefit and/or reason why you should learn something needs to come before the actual content. Otherwise, the learner's brain gets to the end of what you're telling them and says, "Oh, NOW you tell me. If you'd said that earlier, I would have paid more attention..." This process of not-paying-attention is not completely within the learner's conscious control so, like I said, even if the person is motivated to learn this thing, their brain can still tune out during specific parts that don't start with a compelling benefit.

To find a "meaningful benefit", play the "Why? Who Cares? So What?" game with someone else. Describe the thing you're trying to explain, to which the other person asks, "Why?" Provide an answer, to which the person then asks, "Who cares?". Provide an answer, to which the person asks, "So?" At this point, when you're nearly ready to kill them for not getting it, you probably have the thing you should have said instead of whatever you said first (and second). The most compelling and motivating reason/benefit is almost always the thing you say only after you've answered at least three "Yeah, but WHY do I care?" questions.


• Use visuals!
Pictures and words chart
We are all visual creatures, and the brian can process visual information far more efficiently than words. These pictures can come in many forms:
* Info graphic or diagram
* Visual metaphor
* Picture of the thing being described, with annotations
* Picture of the end state
* Picture designed to create attention and recall


• Use redundancy to increase understanding and retention.

Redundancy

Redundancy doesn't mean repetition--it means "say the same thing again, but differently." And "differently" can mean:
* From a different perspective.
* Using a different information channel (channels include things like Graphics, Examples, Prose explanations, step-by-step instruction/tutorial, case studies, exercises, summaries, bullet points, commentary, devil's advocate, Q & A, personal etc.)

Also, the more senses you engage, the greater the potential for retention and recall. Even having a bowl of just-popped popcorn or the smell of freshly-baked cookies while learning, can make a difference. Bummer about web-delivered content, though...

Being terse is good for a reference document, but deadly in learning content. The best learning experience considers the way you'd learn that particular thing in real life -- but offers it in a safe, simulated, compressed form. Real-life learning is never terse; it's choas and confusion punctuated with moments of insight ("Ah-ha!") and clarity. It's a wave, not a straight line. A learning blog, book, or classroom shouldn't try to straighten it out!


• Maintain interest with variety and surprise.
Surpriselearning_1


• Use conversational language.
Conversationalwords
The brain pays more attention when it thinks it's in a conversation and must "hold up its end." And there's evidence that suggests your brain behaves this way even if the "conversation" is between a human (you) and a book or computer screen (or lecture).


• Use mistakes, failures, and counter-intuitive WTF?

People usually learn much more from failures than from being shown everything working correctly or as expected.
The most memorable learning experiences are usually those where things are going along fine, making sense, etc. when you suddenly slam into something that goes terribly wrong. Describing the things that do NOT work is often more effective than showing how things DO work. (We call this the "WTF learning principle").

But showing is even better than describing. And even better than showing is letting the learner experience. Take the learner down a garden path where everything makes perfect sense until it explodes. They are far more likely to remember than if you simply say, "Oh, and be sure you do it such and such a way."

It's tempting to want to protect the learners from the bumps and scrapes experienced in the real world, but in many cases (with many topics) you aren't doing the learner any favors.


• Use the filmaker (and novelist) principle of SHOW-don't-TELL.
Rather than lecture about the details of how something works, let them experience how it works by walking them through a story or scenario, where they can feel the bumps along the way.


• Use "chunking" to reduce cognitive overhead.
Remember, we have very little short-term memory (RAM) in our heads. The standard rule is that we can hold roughly 7 things before we must either commit some of it to long-term storage or toss it out to take in something new. And the things you hold in short-term memory vanish as soon as there is an interruption. You look up a phone number, and as long as you repeat it to yourself and nobody asks you a question, you can remember it--usually just long enough to dial the number. By the time you finish talking to the person on the other end of the line, the number is long gone.

Chunking takes fine-grained data/facts/knowledge and puts them into meaningful or at least memorable chunks to help reduce the number of things you have to hold in short-term memory, and increase the chance of retention and recall. For example, imagine you were asked to take 30 seconds to memorize the following "code symbols" for the numbers 1-10:

Chunkingbad
you'd be lucky to get 60% correct in a follow-up quiz given immediately after those 30 seconds. There are simply too many symbols to memorize in such a short time, and there's no instantly obvious way to relate them to one another.

But... with one simple change to the way in which the symbols are presented--and without changing the symbols:
Chunkinggood

30 seconds gets most people to 100% accuracy in the follow-up quiz. In other words, by grouping the symbols into a meaningful, memorable pattern, we reduce the number of individual (and potentially arbitrary) things you have to memorize, and increase the chances.


Relax
• Since stress/anxiety can reduce focus and memory, do everything possible to make the learner feel relaxed and confident.
That does not mean dumbing-down the material, but rather letting the learner know that -- "This IS confusing -- so don't worry if it's still a little fuzzy at this point. It will start to come together once you've worked through the rest of the examples." In other words, let them know that they aren't stupid for not getting it at this point. For especially difficult and complex topics, let the learner know where they should be at each stage, and help them decide whether they need to go back and repeat something. Make sure they know that this repetition is part of the normal learning process, not something they must do because they failed.

If you're worried about being patronizing, then don't patronize. Just be honest about what it takes for people to learn that content. But you can't do that unless you know how hard it is for a beginner to learn it. As experts, we have a tough time remembering what it was like NOT TO KNOW, so if you're not sure, do the research. One of the best ways to find out what newcomers struggle with is to visit online discussion forums for beginners in your topic. This is also a great way to come up with a table-of-contents or topic list, because what you THINK should be a no-brainer might be the one thing everyone gets stuck on, and what you think would be confusing could turn out to be easy for most people.

The point is, YOU are not necessarily the best judge of how your audience will learn the topic. And empathy rarely helps -- you cannot truly put yourself in someone else's shoes unless their brain and background are a very close match for yours. You have to find out what your learners are struggling with, and suspend any judgement about "This should be a no-brainer."

Those who have taught a topic have a big advantage writing about it--they've fielded the questions and watched people struggle. They know how things should be "weighted" according to how difficult they are. But you can learn almost as much simply by lurking on beginner discussion forums (or attending user group sessions for newbies).


• Use seduction, charm, mystery to build curiosity.
Seductioncuriosity
We're hard-wired to pay attention and pursue things we're attracted to. This isn't about selling them on an idea--it's about helping them stay engaged and learning. Knowing what--and when--to withold is one of the most powerful tools you have. If you're writing reference material (like this post), witholding will just piss people off. But in a learning experience, you want a page-turner. And don't even think about suggesting that "page-turner" doesn't apply to, say, technical material. If the purpose is learning, the learner has to stay engaged. It's up to you to craft an experience that keeps them hooked. This engagement might be within a single post, or you might offer little cliffhangers or teasers to keep them engaged across multiple posts, if that's what it takes to cover a topic.


• Use a spiral model to keep users engaged.
Spiralexperiencemodel_2
Game developers know the importance of "The Next Level", and learning experiences must do the same. Each iteration through the spiral should start with a meaningful, motivating goal, followed by the interaction/activity/reading that moves you toward that goal, followed by a meaningful payoff. Ideally, the "meaningful payoff" leads right into the next motivating goal.

For example, in a game the payoff for completing a level might be "You Get A New Weapon". But now that you have that new weapon, here's the cool new thing you can do that you couldn't do before. Learning doesn't need to be any different. "Imagine you want to do X on your website..." is the goal that starts the topic, but when the topic is complete, the learning content can say, "Now that you have THAT new [superpower capability], wouldn't it be cool if you could do Y?" And off they go into the next round of learning.
Nextlevel_1


• Don't rob the learner of the opportunity to think!
Opportunitytothink
Rather than simply spelling everything out step by step, ask questions, pose multiple and potentially conflicting viewpoints, show the topic from different perspectives, and set up scenarios (and possibly exercises) that allow the learner to use deeper brain processing. Things that encourage deeper thinking are those that cause the learner to categorize, organize, apply, infer, evaluate, etc. Don't be afraid to pose questions that you don't answer right away.

Think back to those teachers you had who would ask a question then immediately answer it, as opposed to those who would answer a question then just sit there... waiting...


• Use the 80/20 principle to reduce cognitive overload.
8020chartsmall
It's far more important that they nail the key things than be exposed to everything. Be brutal, be brave, be relentless in what you leave out. Knowing what NOT to include is more important in learning design than knowing what TO include.


• Context matters.
Try to place facts, concepts, procedures, examples in a bigger context. Even if you've already discussed the context, don't be afraid to repeat that context again. For example, instead of always showing code snippets, show the code within the larger context of where it usually appears. Highlight the code you're focused on by bolding it, putting it in a box, etc., so that the learner is not overwhelmed by the amount of code, and can focus on just the part you're talking about, but still be able to see how that new code relates to the rest of the code. Our rule of thumb in our books is to show the same code context two or three times before switching to just the snippets (although this rule varies greatly with the type of code).


• Emotion matters!
Shockedface
People learn and remember that which they FEEL. Look back at what you've written and if it's dry and lifeless, try to inject some energy. Dry, academic, formal, lecture-style writing is usually the WORST form of learning content.

One of the many ways to help tap into emotions (and increase attention and memory) is to use the brain's reaction to faces. Almost any kind of face with a strong expression evokes a part of the brain reserved just for processing faces. The ability to accurately recognize faces and read facial expressions is a key element of survival for the brain...
Facesmad
Babypicface


• Never underestimate the power of FUN to keep people engaged.
Havingfun
The act of having fun is also an emotion, so anything associated with fun has a greater chance of being remembered.


• Use stories.
Humans have been learning from stories for, well, a really really really long time. Millenia longer than we've been learning from lectures on just the data and information. When we say "stories", we don't necessarily mean actual fictional "John's network went down just as he was plugging in the...", although those do work. But a "story" can simply mean that you're asking the learner to imagine herself wanting to do a particular thing, and then offering an experience of what that would be like if she were actually trying to accomplish it, with all the ups, downs, false leads, etc. (but again, with less of the actual pain she might experience in real life). A flight simulator, for example, is a kind of story.You aren't just up there learning the controls; you're actually flying in a particular storyline.

If you're a software developer, another way to think about story-driven learning is to map use-cases to learning stories. Base your learning content around individual use-cases, and put the learner in the center of the use-case. One easy trick for designing story-driven learning is to start each topic with something like, "Imagine you want to do..." and then walk though that experience. It makes the learning organic and real, and helps make sure you get rid of the stuff that doesn't need to be there. If it doesn't show up in a use-case/story, are you so sure you should be teaching it?


• Use pacing and vary the parts of the brain you're exercising.
Timingandpacing
Learning--and especially memorization--doesn't happen at an even pace. Brains--or especially parts of brains--get tired and lose focus. By varying the pace--and type--of learning content, you give a user's brain the chance to let one part rest while the other part takes over. For example, follow a heavy left-brain technical procedure with a big-picture example/story that covers the same topic. This helps the learner's memory in two different ways--the redundancy means two different chances to save the information, and the fact that you gave one part of the brain a break while shifting to a different part keeps their brain working longer without fatigue.

Think about it--if you hopped up and down on your right foot repeatedly, that right leg would give up after fewer repetitions than if you kept switching from right to left. Pacing--by frequently switching which parts of your body (or in this case, brain) you're using--lets you stay fresher for a longer period.

Also, recording something to long-term memory is rarely instant (although the stronger the associated emotion, the faster (and more likely) your brain is to record it). Memory is a physical/chemical process that happens after you've been exposed to something, and if anything interrupts the process, the memory is not stored. That's why people with serious head injuries often cannot remember what took place just prior to the injury--the process of recording those things to long-term memory was stopped.

If you want someone to remember something, you must give them a chance to process that memory. Relentlessly presenting new, tough information (like tons of code and complex concepts) without also including chances to reflect, process, think, apply, review, etc. virtually guarantees that much of the learning will be forgotten.


• Remember, it's never about you. It's about how the learner feels about himself as a result of the learning experience.
Notaboutyou
Don't use learning content as a chance to show off your knowledge--that virtually guarantees your content won't be user-friendly. Use it as a chance to help someone's life a little.


A successful learning blog is about helping the readers learn and grown and kick ass! Make that happen, and your stats will take care of themselves. In contrast, the best way to ensure a low readership is to assume that readers are into you. Offering users nothing but your opinions, however well-reasoned, might not be enough to make it worth their scarce time and attention.

"If you teach it, they will come."

Thinking - I

Have you ever wondered how children can sit through replay after replay of their favorite Lion King or Little Mermaid video? It amazes me that they’ll voluntarily watch the same show every day without a single complaint or request for something new.

What’s more amazing, though, is that adults do the very same thing with their days.

The majority of men and women play “movies” in their heads again and again,
relentlessly focusing on the review of past events, most of which are unpleasant and
disturbing experiences that have come their way.

If they’re actually able to stop their contemplation of past events, they allow impressions of their current surroundings and results to govern their lives. And, once in a while for variety’s sake, they’ll contemplate the future by either worrying about it, or daydreaming and wishing that something better might come along. And then they wonder why bad things keep happening to them, or why they never rise above the issues and obstacles in their lives.

Frankly, they would be better off watching The Lion King 40 times a day – because at least then, they’d be immersed in a creative and upbeat, positive process. See,most people have never learned how to “program” creative and upbeat “movies” in their heads because they’ve never been taught the value of creative visioning and purposeful thinking.

If you doubt me, listen to the varied conversations going on around you. Sadly enough, I can readily predict that you’ll hear a Dante’s nightmare of disconnected thoughts with very little effort put forth in carrying on a purposeful (much less positively- minded) conversation. While it is true that people are free to think anything they please, as long as they remain set in their ways, there is very little that can be done to change the unpleasant experiences that keep cropping up in their lives.

There is, however, a strong movement that is stirring the multitudes into a new conception of living.

The study of the mind – and its veritable unearthly power – is at last taking its proper place in modern civilization. Proper use of the mind and its various faculties will give you anything you choose – but the emphasis here is on the word “proper.” To move in this favored direction requires study and focused, consistent effort with a good measure of creative juices stirred in.

Daily Walk

Daily Walk

The popularity of walking as a fitness activity is growing by leaps and bounds. Low risk and easy to start, walking has proved its health benefits in numerous studies.

An eight-year study of 13,000 people found that those who walked 30 minutes a day had a significantly lower risk of premature death than those who rarely exercised.

A regular walking program can help:
* Reduce blood cholesterol
* Lower blood pressure
* Increase cardiovascular endurance
* Boost bone strength
* Burn calories and keep weight down

Get ready

A walking program is simple to start. All you need are comfortable clothes and shoes. Layer loose clothing, keeping in mind that exercise elevates the body's temperature. Shoes specifically designed for walking are best.

Every workout should begin with a brief warm-up and a few simple stretches. Walk around the house or in place for a few minutes to get the blood flowing to the muscles before you attempt to stretch them. Although walking primarily works the major muscles of the legs, don't forget to stretch your back, shoulders and arms.

This will help to loosen up any tension you may be carrying and make your walk more enjoyable as well as more effective.

Get moving

Beginning walkers can make their workouts less strenuous by limiting how fast and far they walk.

Keep in mind the following:

Walk short distances

Begin with a five-minute stroll and gradually increase your distance.

Forget about speed

Walk at a comfortable pace. Focus on good posture, keeping your head lifted and shoulders relaxed.

Swing your arms naturally

Breathe deeply. If you can't catch your breath, slow down or avoid hills

Be sure you can talk while walking

If you can't converse, you are walking too fast.


Get fit!

Walking is one fitness activity that allows you numerous options. Once you have reached a point where you can walk a few miles with relative ease, you can start to vary the intensity.

Walking hills, in addition to increasing your cardiovascular endurance, is a great way to tone the legs. Concentrate on lengthening your stride or increasing your speed. And don't forget to reward yourself after each workout with a few minutes of relaxing stretches to help prevent sore muscles.

Listening to lively music while you walk is also a great way to energize your workout. But if you wear headphones, keep the volume down and watch out for traffic that you may not hear.

Keep track of your progress. Many experts recommend that you walk a minimum of 20 minutes a day. But there are no hard and fast rules. Fit walking into your schedule whenever you can. That may mean two 10-minute walks each day, or even hour-long walks two to three times a week. The best schedule is one that keeps you walking and keeps you fit!

Boost Your Self-Confidence

Here are 7 quick ways to boost your self-confidence levels quickly and easily. You can use them where-ever you are and in whatever situation you may face. Let's get stuck in straight-away, here they are:

1) No matter how you feel at this very moment, picture yourself in the situation you want to be in. Really see yourself there in your minds eye being successful. If you are going for an interview picture yourself starting that job on the first day going into work happy and confident. If it is success in sport you desire play a movie through your mind of you scoring the winning goal, touchdown or points. In each situation imagine how it feels to be in that situation and hold those thoughts and feelings in your mind for as long as you can.


2) If at anytime you find a negative thought creeping in to your mind, and let's face it, it will happen. Deliberately and consciously let go of that negative thought and immediately put a positive thought into your mind. You might want to put a small photo in your wallet that creates a positive emotion in your mind: a holiday snap, wedding photo, successful business meeting or whatever. Each time you pull it out it will be like flicking the switch from negative to positive.


3) When faced with a problem, start to overcome it by first concentrating on what qualities or positives you do have at your disposal. It may be useful to write a list and make sure to include even the obvious and seemingly trivial positive points that you do have going for you. This will immediately take your focus off the negative thoughts of the problem and onto your own positive abilities. Always remember: 'If you think you can, you can'.


4) Do not give any problem or negative situation anymore credit than it deserves. Do not build the problem up in your mind. Sometimes we build up a problem into a much greater thing than it really is through our fear of failure and worry. Realise the world will not stop spinning if you don't solve the problem straight-away, it may also pay to write the problem down so you can see it for what it actually is...not what you have built it up to be.


5) Find and develop your own set of affirmations that you can use and repeat to yourself at times when you are feeling particularly low. Repeating positive phrases with emotion can help change a negative thought pattern to a positive one. Here is a good one to start with especially if you are a Christian: ' I can do all things through christ that strengthen me' a classic bible passage that really does instill belief. Many more affirmations available through the link below.


6) Take a long hard look at your abilities and skills, assess them and their strength. Once you have done this raise your estimation of them all by at least 15%. After all the whole is greater than the sum of it's parts and it is important to develop a healthy belief in yourself.


7) If you have any sort of religous belief then relax and remember the power of the God that you believe in is all around you. Allow his power to flow through you freely and raise your self confidence through him. If God is for you who can possibly defeat you?


So there you have it, 7 quick tips to boost your self-confidence. Basically you should be trying to fill your mind as often as possible with positive thoughts so that they ooze out of your mind. These tips above when practised regularly will help create a pattern of positive thoughts which will become a self-perpetuating cycle and a habit....this is the real key to boosting your own self-confidence!

Training need Analysis Overview

Training need Analysis Overview

The following information provides us an overall view of the training needs of the company that we are looking forward to service through our training. The questions are not necessarily exhaustive, but give you broad directions to understanding the objectives; the expectations; the current trainings methods if any; knowledge or performance gaps that necessitated the need for a training program…
When looking for training needs, or when problems arise, there are several instruments that may be used to locate the actual symptoms. Some of these needs assessment instruments are:
• Surveys: Send out written questioners
• Observations: Watch the job or task being performed.
• Group Discussions: Lead a group discussion composed of employees and their supervisors.
• Interviews: Talk to supervisors, managers, Subject Matter Experts (SME), and employees.
• Literature research: Analyze budget documents, quality control documents, goal statements, evaluation reports, scheduling and staffing reports, or other documents for existing problems

Business Objectives

• What organizational goal is driving this training?

• What will the benefit or ROI be?

• What is the skill gap?

• What competencies (knowledge, skills, or attitudes) will this program deliver?

• What factor or evaluation will be used to measure the level of goal achievement?




Target Population

• Who will be trained?
• What is the estimated class size?
• How many classes will there be and how long will this training last?
What are the knowledge and skill prerequisites?
Type of Training

• What type of program is being proposed?

• What media will be employed?

Alternatives
• What will happen if we do not delivering the training?
• What are the restrictions or limitations for delivering a program?
• What other methods may be used to reach the goal (include limitations and advantages)?
To further help you in your training need analysis, you may choose to ask from the following set of questions:
Inputs from Management/Supervisors:
• What are your employees doing that they shouldn't be doing?
• What specific things would you like to see your people do, but don't?
• When you envision workers performing this job properly, what do you see them doing?
• What prevents you from performing a prescribed task to standards?
• Are job aids available and if so, are they accurate? Are they being used?
• Are the standards reasonable? If not, why?
• What subject would you like to see your workers trained on? What would you like to be trained on?

Background of Proposed Learners:

• What is their average education level?
• Are they freshers experienced? If experienced, whats the average years of work experience they have?
• How long are they employed with the company?
• What is the expected number of participants in a group?
• What are the Job requirements verses learner’s skills?
• What are the motivations of the learners?

Profiling the Job:

• What is the job description?
• What are the basic proficiency levels required to perform the job? (Knowledge, Skills & Attitude required)
• Are there any specific demands that the job makes on the employees? (Night shifts, target based selling, working at stretch etc.)
• What are the various tasks required to be performed in the job (Routine and functional)?
• What is the frequency of the job?
• What is the amount of training required to reach the proficiency desired?
• What is the criticality of the job?

In-house knowledge transfer process (Alternatives):

• How much of on the job training is provided for this group?
• Are there any Job aids available?
• Are there any intranet/CBT tools available for the learner for reference?
• Are there any instructional manuals available?
• What are the best practices in the center to transfer tacit knowledge (Knowledge residing with colleague, supervisor etc.)? Are there weekly meets, help desk?

Training Monitor

Training Monitor

§ Please make sure you have got your sign off within the client stipulated time or 48 hours after training

§ Create a file for all trainings you do with this information on the opening page.

§ Make sure you have filled in all relevant details and submitted it to the Location Head for the sign off

Name of Trainer Location Training batch____________

Name of Client­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­______________________________Location of Training________________

Module:

Please fill the following information:

	Checklist item	Yes/No
1	Did you carry the session plan for your training?
2	Is the duration of the program known?
3	Do you have the Assessment Sheets?
4	Do you know the profile of trainees?
5	Was HMM assessment criterion used?
6	Was the content customized?
7	Are you aware of the client requirements for reports?
8	Have you checked if infrastructure is in working order?
9	Have you done the Pre-Mid-Post- Assessments
10	Have you submitted the Pre-Mid-Post- Assessments on time?
11	Have you written the Carryover Plans and given them to the Trainees?
12	Have you taken the Trainees feedback?
13	Have you submitted the Program feedback Report?
14	Have you done the Culture Tests and submitted scores?
15	Have you sent a copy of all the above to your coordinator?

Signature of trainer:_________________________________

Signature of Location Head: _________________________

Date:_____________________

AMERICAN VISITED INDIA AND WENT BACK TO AMERICA


WHERE HE MET HIS INDIAN FRIEND WHO ASKED HIM




HOW DID U FIND MY COUNTRY




THE AMERICAN SAID IT IS A GREAT COUNTRY

WITH SOLID ANCIENT HISTORY

AND IMMENSELY RICH WITH NATURAL RESOURCES.




THE INDIAN FRIEND THEN ASKED




HOW DID U FIND INDIANS ??




INDIANS??

WHO INDIANS??

I DIDNT FIND OR MET A SINGLE INDIAN

THERE IN INDIA




WHAT NONSENSE??

WHO ELSE COULD U MET IN INDIA THEN??




THE AMERICAN SAID.




IN KASHMIR I MET A KASHMIRI

IN PUNJAB A PANJABI

IN BIHAR,MAHARASTRA, RAJASTHAN, BENGAL,TAMILNADU,KERALA

BIHARI,MARATHI, MARWADI, BENGALI,TAMILIAN, MALAYALI




THEN I MET

A MUSLIM,

A HINDU

A CHRISTIAN,

A JAIN,

A BUDDHIST




AND MANY MANY MANY MORE




BUT NOT A SINGLE INDIAN DID I MEET







THINK HOW SERIOUS THIS JOKE IS




THE DAY WOULD NOT BE FAR OFF WHEN INDEED WE WOULD

BECOME A COLLECTION OF NATION STATES AS SOME

REGIONAL ANTI-NATIONAL POLITICIANS WANT ...




FIGHT BACK -




ALWAYS SAY I AM INDIAN


JAI HIND

Keep them dont loose them

Every business requires people, and it how you keep your key people that matters. You could lose every tangible asset-furniture, fixtures, buildings, cars, files, computers, and everything else-but as long as you kept your key personnel, you could be back in business again tomorrow, generating sales and making profits.

There are three types of knowledge that a business needs to survive and thrive. Personal knowledge, company knowledge, and market knowledge.

Personal knowledge is the specific knowledge, skills, education, background, experience, training, and core competencies that an individual owns and takes with her from place to place. The ability to write, to speak publicly, negotiate, to sell, to make presentations, to type, to prepare final statements, and so on, are all forms of personal intellectual capital. The more of these kinds of knowledge and skills that are relevant to your business a person has, the more valuable that person can be.

The process of interviewing and selection, as well as delegation, supervision, and promotion, revolves around the determination and deployment of these core skills.

The second type of knowledge is the knowledge of your specific company. This form of intellectual capital is very valuable. This includes knowledge about the processes and procedures within your business, the key personalities and their relationships to each other, your products and services and how they are developed, sold, and delivered, and all the other unique factors and features that make your business different from any other.

When a person works for a business for any time, that person absorbs an enormous amount of valuable information about how the business functions. This heightened knowledge and awareness has a real value. If you lose a person who is intimately familiar with many aspects of your business the cost of hiring and training a new individual to the same level of competence can be very high.

The third type of intellectual capital is specific knowledge about the market, your customers, and your competitors; and about your products and services, and the way they are marketed, sold and delivered. The kind of customer and market knowledge can be of inestimable value in the competitive market place. The longer a salesperson, for example works for a company, the more valuable he becomes in terms of his network of contacts and his intimate knowledge of customers-who they are, where they are, why they buy, and the various buying influences that operate on them.

Not long ago, a client company of my friend brought in a new controller who has been entrusted with the function of cost reduction. The controller glanced over the payroll and arbitrarily decided that the top salesman was earning too much money and insisted the corporate office that the commission of the salesman be cut, his territory be reduced, and several of his major clients be turned into “house accounts.”

The salesman concerned represented about 40 percent of the total sales of this medium-sized manufacturing company. When they told him that they were going to cut his commissions and cut his territories, thereby reducing his income by more than 50 percent he protested. He was of the opinion that he has with the company for more than 12 years and has taken a lot of pains in building his customer base.

The company refused to listen and they were of the opinion that the customers belonged to the company and not to him. The customer’s loyalty shall therefore be towards the organization and towards their products and services. Hence they felt that there is no reason for the company to pay such exorbitant money to service accounts. They categorically stated that if you’re not happy with these new arrangements, you can go somewhere else.

The salesman tried to reason with the management, but to no avail. Finally, he quit the organization and walked across the street to their major competitor, taking all the accounts, references with him. His old company’s sales dropped by about 40 percent the following year. They almost went bankrupt. They had no idea that the relationship between the salesman and his customers was perhaps the most valuable form of intellectual capital in the entire company.

The object of elaborating this point is that any employee who possesses personal knowledge, company knowledge and market knowledge is indispensable and the management at all costs has to ensure that he is taken care of. One needs to have more of these kinds of employees rather than having employees being filled against vacant positions. Such employees do not only add value to themselves but add immeasurable value to the organization, society and country at large.