Cybersecurity is at the top of the agenda of nearly every board of directors meeting on Wall Street. As the threats evolve, so to do the countermeasures. Firms are deploying new methods to prevent cyberattacks and recover quickly when hackers penetrate defenses. Meanwhile, a big piece of the cybersecurity puzzle lies at the intersection of industry and government, where enhanced collaboration and information sharing are starting to produce positive results. With the above landscape in mind, SmartBrief recently partnered with SIFMA and the Financial Services Roundtable to assemble a pair of panels to talk about the state of cybersecurity in financial services. The panels focused on cybersecurity public policies — those in place and others under consideration — and the best practices current practitioners have adopted to enhance the cybersecurity of their individual firms and the financial services industry as a whole. Below you will find video highlights and a brief description of each panel. You may also scroll to the bottom of this post to view the full-length video of each panel as well as related posts and video highlights based on specific topics/questions. Cybersecurity and Public Policy: The Road Ahead The interaction between the financial sector and policymakers has shifted dramatically over the past few years when it comes to cybersecurity. Greater collaboration has spurred legislative action, but key questions remain: How do current information-sharing proposals address liability concerns? What other policies are needed to protect customer information while ensuring the safe execution of necessary transactions? What are the cross-border ramifications of U.S. policies? What is the industry doing to work with policymakers and shape guidelines that keep pace with the ever-evolving challenges posed by cyber threats? Panelists: Mark Clancy, CEO, Soltra - Managing Director, CISO Technology Risk Management, DTCC Chris Feeney, BITS President, Financial Services Roundtable (formerly Managing Director and Chief Information Officer, LPL Financial) Thomas Ferlazzo, Vice President, Operational Risk, Federal Reserve Bank of New York Karl Schimmeck, Managing Director, Financial Services Operations, SIFMA Moderator: Sean McMahon, Senior Finance Editor, SmartBrief   From the Frontlines: The Practitioner’s Perspective on Cybersecurity Sound cybersecurity practices run the gamut from prevention to resiliency. As threats evolve, so do best practices related to preventing attacks. What are the greatest threats to financial services firms? What tools are experts in the field using to identify and negate internal and external threats? How can firms better respond to attacks and rapidly return to regular business operations? Panelists: Al Berg, Chief Security and Risk Officer, Liquidnet Holdings Inc. Robert Cornish, Chief Technology Officer and Chief Information Security Officer, International Securities Exchange (ISE) Boaz Gelbord, Chief Information Security Officer, Bloomberg LP George Rettas, Managing Director and Chief of Staff, Global Information Security Department - Information Protection Directorate, Citigroup Moderator: Sean McMahon, Senior Finance Editor, SmartBrief   Related posts: Financial sector working to improve speed of cyberthreat info-sharing, experts say  How to recruit and organize cybersecurity talent Experts: Cybersecurity collaboration between industry, government making progress   Highlights of specific questions/topics Information sharing Information sharing was a hot topic on both panels at the SmartBrief Cybersecurity Forum. Panelists from both sessions weighed in with their thoughts on the progress that has been made with regard to information sharing within the financial services industry and how critical it has become in preventing attacks.   Recruiting and organizing cybersecurity talent Cybersecurity experts are a hot commodity these days. Financial firms are pulling out all the stops to recruit top talent. Our panel of experts shares their insights on how the identify and attract talent. They also weigh in on how the cybersecurity org chart should be structured. With CTOs, CIOs, CISOs, etc … who should report to whom?   Full-length videos     https://vimeo.com/131671832 Related Posts: Financial sector working to improve speed of cyberthreat info-sharing, experts say How to recruit and organize cybersecurity talent Experts: Cybersecurity collaboration between government, industry making progress ICYMI - January 10 Sneak Peek: OPS 2015 kicks off Monday in San Diego SmartBrief Cybersecurity Forum originally published by SmartBlogs

The Young Entrepreneur Council is an invite-only organization comprised of the world’s most promising young entrepreneurs. YEC recently launched StartupCollective, a free virtual mentorship program that helps millions of entrepreneurs start and grow businesses. Read previous SmartBlogs posts by YEC. If you enjoy this article, join SmartBrief’s e-mail list for our newsletters on small business and entrepreneurialism. Q. Should I let an underperforming employee go now, or wait until we find a replacement and why? They are not toxic, just time to move on. 1. Give them the choice Bad workers usually get warnings. Businesses are entitled to two weeks’ notice. And here, you have a decent worker who, while continuing to add value, has outlived his or her purpose there, to little fault of their own. So, the fair but not painless path is letting the employee choose between going or staying on to save money until either you replace them or they replace their income source. — Manpreet Singh, TalkLocal 2. Give them a different role Hiring someone is expensive. Once hired, training a new employee is time-consuming. If there’s an employee that is underperforming in their current role, assess what skills they bring to the table and if another role in your company would better suit their talents. Sam might be a poor salesperson, but he could make a fantastic customer care representative. Termination is always my last resort. — Derek Hunter, William Roam 3. Make the hard decision Let the employee go as soon as you know they’re not the right fit. It allows them to find a better fit for themselves, and once they aren’t there it will make you more motivated to fill the void — otherwise you could last with a subpar employee for a much longer period of time than you’d planned. — Sean Ogle, Location 180 LLC 4. Let them go Underperformers are are rarely non-toxic. In my experience, most employees look to each other to gauge the acceptable level of performance within your company. When you hold on to C players, you risk your A players leaving out of frustration and your B players conforming due to the assumption that lower standards are acceptable. — Jesse Lear, V.I.P. Waste Services LLC 5. Move on right away When it comes to building a team, hire slow and fire fast. The worst thing you can do is keep an underperforming employee on your team — it will destroy team morale, create a false sense of expectations and hurt overall performance. — Jonny Simkin, Swyft 6. Make sure they understand from the start Every employee I hire gets the same speech on the first day, "Don’t be good. Don’t be great. Be irreplaceable to me. I am super busy, and I move really fast. If you don’t make yourself irreplaceable to me, I promise that I will replace you." It’s our job to make an environment that people love being in, it’s their job to be valuable enough to stay there. I have never wished I fired someone later. — Andrea Lake, StickerJunkie.com 7. Don’t tolerate underperformance Your team is only as good as your weakest link. Tolerating anything less than great performance undermines your team’s ability to produce the best output. It’s important to solicit constructive feedback from your top performers to ensure deficiencies in your workforce are corrected — either through a performance improvement plan or termination — before it spreads. — Alex Riley, MeritHall 8. Invest in a smooth transition Your reputation is impacted by how employees, both current and former, perceive your company. When you identify an underperformer, spend time understanding why that person wasn’t a good fit (so you don’t hire the wrong candidate again) and invest resources to help that individual find the right position for his or her next career move (to develop long-term karma). — Danny Wong, Grapevine 9. Focus on finding their replacement As tempting as it may be to let them go right away, as underperforming is toxic, the subsequent problems left by not having a replacement in place can be even more toxic. Focus on finding a replacement who you can train in conjunction, so when you terminate the underperforming employee you will not suffer from missed deadlines because there was no one to take over for that person’s duties. — Marcela DeVivo, Gryffin Media 10. Help them find a better fit People often need coaching to get to the next level. If they are not adding value despite your best efforts, don’t keep them as a stop-gap measure. Their poor performance will negatively impact the team, so let them go along with a conversation about why. This will drive you to find your desired A-player while supporting that person’s transition into a different company/role that’s a better fit. — David Hassell, 15Five 11. Keep only the right fits In his book "Good to Great," Jim Collins argues that great companies get the right people on the bus and the wrong people off the bus as soon as they realize someone isn’t fitting. Get the underperforming employee off the bus now, to free up that seat for the right candidate and to make sure you’re not demotivating any of the right people on the bus by keeping the underperforming employee around. — Natalie MacNeil, She Takes on the World 12. Don’t give up This depends on the employee’s overall value to your organization (e.g., he or she has a large role in a current project), as well as whether or not the underperformance is due to a systemic problem or is isolated to the employee. Dig deeper. Identify why the employee has lost interest. If the problem is systemic, find and fix the root cause. — Derek Labian, MediaFire Related Posts: What is the best way to address an underperforming employee? Are your employees people managers or subject-matter experts? How do you decide? What is one critical piece to include in employee performance reviews and why? What resources can help entrepreneurs be better managers? Common mistakes leaders make during periods of fast growth When do you let an underperforming employee go? originally published by SmartBlogs

A skills shortage has cybersecurity experts in high demand on Wall Street as firms boost their game to lure top talent. But how should firms go about recruiting the right personnel to match their needs? A panel of experts at the recent SmartBrief Cybersecurity Forum weighed in on what they are doing to identify and recruit cyber warriors. As George Rettas from Citigroup noted, recent headlines have made an already competitive landscape even tougher as Wall Street, which is already used to competing with companies from other areas of critical infrastructure, must now compete with non-critical infrastructure companies desperate to avoid headline risk. "It’s people like Sony, who are in the entertainment business," Rettas explained. "They’re not even critical infrastructure. Now they are hiring the best cybersecurity professionals in the world." The conversation also touched on how to organize the upper echelons of cybersecurity teams. With CTOs, CIOs, CISOs, etc … who should report to whom? Opinions on the panel differed as Al Berg, chief security and risk officer for Liquidnet, said security executives should not report directly to the CIO. Berg believes there should be room for "healthy tension" between the two positions because some of the recommendations the security team might make could make the CIO "uncomfortable." Meanwhile, International Securities Exchange CTO and CISO Robert Cornish pointed out some of the advantages of having the two positions connected via the chain of command. "One advantage … is being aware of every change that happening in your environment from a technology perspective. … I’ve seen in the past where security ends up being the last to know that some new product system was installed onto the network." Related Posts: SmartBrief Cybersecurity Forum Financial sector working to improve speed of cyberthreat info-sharing, experts say ICYMI - January 10 This week’s most clicked Experts: Cybersecurity collaboration between government, industry making progress How to recruit and organize cybersecurity talent originally published by SmartBlogs

Path to Workforce is SmartBrief Education’s vision of college and career readiness, encompassing K-12, adult learners, career changers, non-traditional students and those who forgo a traditional four-year college experience. Stay tuned for ongoing #Path2W coverage, including model programs, expert insights and reader feedback. In California, our three small districts are maximizing the value of career and technical education courses through an innovative system. As superintendent of the Colton-Redlands-Yucaipa Regional Occupation Program, I have found that a solid college and career readiness program is based in deep community engagement, rigorous core courses and strong student support that can be expanded with the right mix of technology and hands-on experiences. My team at CRY-ROP provides targeted support, curriculum, internships and many other opportunities to the students in each of our three districts. This summer, we look to expand on past success through our Career Express Online. The value of CTE has become more and more apparent in recent years as a way to better prepare students for life after graduation. Excitingly, many industries have expressed an increased need for workers that have hands-on, real-life experience, rather than looking just at a college degree. CTE provides opportunities to explore emerging career paths. Research shows that the completion of career-focused courses result in the development of 21st-century skills, including problem-solving, project completion, research, effective communication, time management and critical thinking. Research by the Southern Regional Education Board shows that CTE courses better prepare students for college and life; 80% of students taking CTE courses in addition to a rigorous academic core meet college and career readiness goals, compared with 63% of students taking the exact same rigorous academic core, without CTE (CTE Works for High School Students, 2013). The social and economic conditions of the 21st century demand that every community engage in conversations and take action to remove obstacles to student success. CRY-ROP relies heavily on our deep-rooted relationships with the industries in our community. Each of our educators at CRY-ROP is also an expert in their field. With the implementation of our Career Express Online, we are able to offer our students a wider variety of career pathways that include an expert in that field is leading instruction. Because of our careful planning, students enrolling in our Career Express Online, as well as traditional CTE courses, now have more than 40 different career pathways to explore, in each of the 15 industry sectors. Internship opportunities emerge from the extended network of industry professionals who teach our courses. It is important that we engage companies and individual professionals effectively and in ways that fit their schedules as well as meet the needs of students. For instance, some of our industry partners participate in mock interviews with students once or twice a year, while others visit classrooms as guest speakers. Industry field trips, both virtual and live, also provide a creative way to experience the world of work. Internships and job-shadow options are more time intensive, but provide sound experiences that benefit students. Any way you slice it, it is of the utmost importance that students connect with professionals throughout their career exploration journey. One of the many benefits of hiring teachers who are also experts in their field is that they maintain valuable industry contacts. From these contacts, CRY-ROP is able to provide programmatic supports that encourage a more holistic approach to college and career readiness. Another, maybe less traditional, but exceptionally valuable aspect of our relationships with industry is that our teachers also participate in job shadow and internship experiences to ensure that they too stay current with the workplace environment and trends. Each school we support has a designated career readiness specialist that is available to help students navigate what can be a bewildering array of opportunities. CRY-ROP provides over 40 career tracks at varying levels of intensity and depth. Career readiness specialists provide guidance, recruitment and placement services on each high-school campus that CRY-ROP serves. These support professionals help to create a learning continuum for students that addresses both academic and career success indicators. Career Express Online will be used to expand options for students to include online classes. These programs feature a rich multimedia format that includes interactive tutorials, avatars, whiteboard illustrations, examples that the students can manipulate, practice games, videos and more. The courses focus on student engagement and motivation while giving us the ability to offer a wider variety of courses in each of the 15 career sectors. As CRY-ROP embraces the complexity associated creating an aligned, 21st century system to prepare students for the competitive global economy, our focus is on knowledge, skills and innovation. Career Express Online is our response to the changing needs of educational delivery. Our launch of Career Express Online is intended to encourage the use of technology to complement educational pathway activities. The new economy requires various skill sets, specifically proficient in thinking and complex communication skills, as well as the use of the most advanced methods of innovation. Our vision is that Career Express Online will enhance the student experience and provide access to high-growth and emerging industries. Our goal is to empower students to imagine their futures and provide possibilities to explore that future. Career Express Online provides students with expanded access to opportunities to attain the skills, knowledge, and abilities needed to be successful; and, because they are delivered virtually, students have autonomy to set their own schedule, while learning the discipline necessary to follow through on their commitments. Students quickly learn about their interests and they can easily explore multiple fields simultaneously. At the end of the day, we are all charged with ensuring each and every student we serve is fully prepared for life after high school, we take that responsibility to heart and look forward to the full implementation of Career Express Online this summer. Stephanie Houston is superintendent of Colton-Redlands-Yucaipa Occupational Program (CRY-ROP) in California. Since starting as a career and technical education professional 20 years ago, she has been a CTE teacher, program manager and director. Superintendent Houston can be reached via email at Stephanie_houston@cry-rop.org If you enjoyed this article, join SmartBrief’s email list for more stories about education. We offer newsletters covering educational leadership, special education and more. Related Posts: Why we shouldn’t glorify billionaires who dropped out of school How is the U.S. faring in the great #skillsrace? How making expands students’ visions of themselves Raising a ready workforce: The missing curriculum component All’s well that ends well? CTE: Creating opportunities for students originally published by SmartBlogs

I work in an industry that has a unique training process. Experiential marketing takes part-time, temporary employees and quickly turns them into go-to experts on products and brands — otherwise known as "brand ambassadors." When you speak with a brand ambassador at an event, it’s possible that he has only been representing that brand for less than a day. This need for instant expertise is a challenge, but it also provides great lessons to other industries that are looking to hone their training processes. Typically, managers want to spend days or weeks training new employees before turning them loose in a real-world setting. But employees usually learn more on their first real day of work than they do during the entire simulated training process. Why on-the-job training works On-the-job training puts employees in a sink-or-swim situation. If they don’t quickly master their duties, they risk making themselves and their new employer look bad. Here’s the good news: In my experience, nine out of 10 employees rise to the challenge. For one thing, learning while doing is an effective way to keep information straight. When you hand a training manual to an employee on his first day and lock him in a room until he’s done reading it, he’ll barely retain the information. But by providing live-action training and forcing employees to learn and succeed on the fly, you’re making their training much easier to remember and apply in the future. Some industries, like experiential marketing, require perfection on day one. In these scenarios, giving employees a brief tutorial and a cheat sheet of important information should be enough before setting them free. This is a proper blend of up-front and on-the-job training, and you’ll find that most employees appreciate the opportunity to jump in and get their hands dirty right away. How to make it work for you With the right preparation and mindset, on-the-job training is actually quite simple to incorporate into your company. Here are five universally applicable pieces of advice: Devote resources. It’s easy to overlook the amount of time and money it takes to properly conduct on-the-job training. Make sure you budget appropriate amounts of each toward your training efforts to ensure everything goes smoothly. Skimping on your training today will lead to an insufficient workforce tomorrow.  Prepare a cheat sheet. Condense all the crucial things your new employees need to know into a fact sheet. They can carry it around and refer to it as they learn. Consider your cheat sheet to be an abridged, portable training manual.  Take responsibility. As the manager or leader of your company, it’s your responsibility to enable the success of your new employees. They’ll look to you as the expert on everything, so make sure you’re available to answer their questions — and actually know the answers.  Be excited. This is your job, and you’ve worked hard to ascend to this managerial role. Your trainees will take notice if you don’t express love for your company and passion for your product. Be charismatic during training, and lead by example.  Stress efficiency. Keep the training process as short as possible, and refuse to let it get off topic. Your new employees — and bosses — will thank you for it. If there’s one thing all industries can learn from experiential marketing, it’s that on-the-job training is the quickest way to produce expert employees. The key is finding a proper, efficient blend of hands-off and hands-on training, all while leading by example. Anthony Russo has been a self-employed business owner for more than five years, and his seven-figure agency, Identity Marketing, is recognized among the top companies in the field of experiential promotional marketing. Russo is also a professional speaker and an emcee for large national events. Related Posts: Make your feedback personal What would your best boss do today? How Team of Leaders helps deal with difficult people 7 essential talents of effective managers How to employ data to empower, not replace, your managers Throw them into the ring: The benefits of on-the-job training originally published by SmartBlogs

According to a recent study by the Korn-Ferry Institute, "knowing thyself" isn’t just a nice-to-to; self-awareness flows directly to a firm’s bottom line. I’ve been sharing this information with my network and it’s generating a lot of interest. While we’ve all know that awareness of strengths and weaknesses and how we are perceived by others is essential to being an effective leader, it’s interesting to see a connection made to a firm’s financial results. Here’s more from a June 15 press release: An analysis by Korn Ferry (NYSE:KFY), the preeminent authority on leadership and talent, shows that public companies with a higher rate of return (ROR) also employ professionals who exhibit higher levels of self-awareness. The Korn Ferry Institute analyzed a total of 6,977 self-assessments from professionals at 486 publicly traded companies to identify the "blind spots" in individuals’ leadership characteristics. A blind spot is defined as a skill that the professional counted among his or her strengths, when coworkers cited that same skill as one of the professional’s weaknesses. The frequency of such blind spots was then gauged against the ROR of those companies’ stock. The analysis demonstrated that, on average: • Poorly performing companies’ professionals had 20 percent more blind spots than those working at financially strong companies. • Poor-performing companies’ professionals were 79 percent more likely to have low overall self-awareness than those at firms with robust ROR. "Self-awareness can directly translate into better choices, and result in more fulfilling careers," said Global Vice President of the Korn Ferry Institute, Joy Hazucha. "On the other hand, those with low self-awareness tend to scramble the messages they receive concerning improvement, interpreting them as a threat rather than an opportunity. They often have an ‘I am what I am’ mentality and continue doing things the way they always have." Hazucha says a person’s level of self-awareness can be increased through 360-degree performance appraisals paired with effective coaching. This in turn drives improved performance and greater work satisfaction. "Feedback helps leaders to identify their blind spots," said Hazucha. "We have known that feedback was important for personal improvement, but this shows that it also pays off in the organization’s performance. A collective focus on personal improvement leads to improvements in the organization." While being aware of your limitations sounds like a no-brainer, it’s not. First of all, it’s hard to get honest, accurate, behavior feedback. People are uncomfortable telling the emperor he/she has no clothes, and leaders often shoot the messenger or ignore the feedback. 360-degree assessments are one way to get feedback and build self-awareness, but not everybody has access to these tools. I’ve written about other ways to get feedback — where there’s a will there’s a way, if a leader is willing to ask and listen. However, I would argue that self-awareness alone is not sufficient to improve leadership effectiveness. Management guru Peter Drucker once said: "The problem in my life and other people’s lives is not the absence of knowing what to do but the absence of doing it." It’s called the "knowing-doing gap." We may know we are supposed to eat healthy foods and exercise, but at the end of the day, we make a zillion excuses not to, put off going to the gym and give in to the temptation of those chocolate chip cookies. So how does a leader move from knowing to doing? Working with an executive coach can help a leader overcome their limiting beliefs and barriers, generate options and action plans, and help keep the leader focused and motivated. But again, not everyone can afford to hire an executive coach. A newly self-aware leader either has to be motivated enough to make it happen (the "just do it approach"), or he or she could work with a supportive manager, mentor or peer coach (a learning partner). That’s assuming the leader wants to change. Take it from executive coach Marshall Goldsmith: When people don’t want to change — don’t waste your time." So the next time someone approaches your tentatively and asks, "Can I give you some feedback?" drop everything, pay attention, and thank the person for the feedback. Then, don’t just stand there, do something about it! You’ll be a better leader, a better person, and you will be making a positive contribution to your organization’s financials. Dan McCarthy is the director of Executive Development Programs at the University of New Hampshire and runs the Management & Leadership channel of About.com. He writes the award-winning leadership development blog Great Leadership and is consistently ranked as one of the top digital influencers in leadership and talent management. He’s a regular contributor to SmartBrief and a member of the SmartBrief on Workforce Advisory Board. E-mail McCarthy. If you enjoyed this article, join SmartBrief’s e-mail list for our daily newsletter on being a better leader and communicator. Related Posts: How to be recognized as a young leader Beware of your leadership strengths How to plan a great off-site meeting What to get your boss for a holiday gift 10 ways to take charge of your leadership development Self-awareness (plus action) translates to the bottom line originally published by SmartBlogs

The financial-services sector needs to strengthen its information-sharing network to learn more quickly of threat data and thereby stay ahead of hackers, said panelists at the recent SmartBrief Cybersecurity Forum in New York City. Cybercriminals are colluding and collaborating frequently, which creates a crucial need for the industry to work more closely together on a regular basis, said George Rettas, managing director and chief of staff, Global Information Security Department — Information Protection Directorate, Citigroup. "You cannot beat a network without being a network yourself. You’re not going to do it alone," Rettas explained. Al Berg, chief security and risk officer of Liquidnet Holdings, said information shared by other organizations "can be a force multiplier for us, because we don’t have to redo that analysis." Karl Schimmeck, managing director of financial services operations for the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association, said that his group and the industry has spent a decade developing relationships to share information through the Financial Services Information Sharing and Analysis Center, or FS-ISAC. The next steps involve building on that sharing with greater government and law enforcement engagement, then extending it more widely through the industry by including more small firms, he said. While the goal of sharing cybersecurity information in real time remains to be achieved, panelists said the daily sharing of information is a key advantage. Robert Cornish, chief technology officer and chief information security officer of International Securities Exchange, said the FS-ISAC subgroup of exchanges and clearinghouses shares information "readily throughout the day." Mark Clancy, CEO of Soltra, said that cyberthreat data from the government has become available increasingly faster, now taking a few days rather than weeks. "If we can get it down into a few minutes after it’s detected and published, then the attackers have much less latitude to operate," he said. In terms of the role the government can play in helping set priorities, Clancy lauded the value of a recent FBI report identifying the top 10 vulnerabilities that nation-state actors have exploited during the past year. "Basically, it’s a shopping cart of everything I have to fix first," he said. Related Posts: SmartBrief Cybersecurity Forum Experts: Cybersecurity collaboration between government, industry making progress How to recruit and organize cybersecurity talent Ridge, Mandia sound off on cybersecurity Sneak Peek: OPS 2015 kicks off Monday in San Diego Financial sector working to improve speed of cyberthreat info-sharing, experts say originally published by SmartBlogs

Summer’s in full swing and ed-tech organizations have been busy releasing a slew of new offerings. Take a look at what SmartBrief on EdTech readers found interesting in this month’s Product Showcase. IPEVO IW2. The IPEVO IW2 wireless interactive whiteboard system transforms nearly any flat surface into an interactive display. The system retails for $169.00. Content series: Why gaming matters for education. More than 60% of teachers use games in their instruction, according to survey data from the Joan Ganz Cooney Center. Education expert Mitch Weisberg discusses how games support pedagogy and drive engagement in this new content series for K-12TechDecisions. Classroom management for early learning. EdWeb.net has partnered with Kaplan to create Classroom Management for Early Learning, a professional learning community for early childhood educators. Membership is free and includes access to a library of resources, webinars and online discussion forums. Members can receive free CE certificates for viewing webinars. Conference: FlipCon 2015. Educators looking to learn more about flipped learning can register for FlipCon 2015, taking place July 13-15 at Michigan State University. Sessions will cover tools, research and professional development ideas for flipped learning environments. Individuals unable to attend the onsite conference can register for the online event. Report: State digital learning exemplars. States are developing policies and programs aimed at expanding digital learning opportunities in their schools. This report, by SETDA and the Friday Institute for Educational Innovation, profiles five states that have created policies designed to drive funding, digital content, human capacity, network infrastructure and data management and privacy. Download the report from SETDA’s website. i-Ready Diagnostic & Instruction. New lessons in i-Ready Diagnostic & Instruction from Curriculum Associates aim to help students in grades 3-5 build close reading habits. The online lessons include activities designed to aid students in synthesizing ideas from multiple sources and develop comprehension in informational and literary texts. Report: A path to the future: Creating accountability for personalized learning. Personalized learning is gaining momentum in K-12. This report offers recommendations for scaling a personalized learning program while maintaining accountability for outcomes. Among the recommendations made are moving from end-of-year testing to real-time testing within grade levels and allowing states to use more fully adaptive test for accountability. Webinar: Social & emotional learning curriculum and assessment go hand in hand. Community Unit School District 300 in Illinois has integrated social emotional learning curriculum and assessment into its instruction. This on-demand webcast will discuss how the school implemented the program and what outcomes it’s seen since deployment. Newsela summer challenge. Students earn badges and sharpen their literacy skills while reading the latest news and feature stories. Report: Measuring mastery: Best practices for assessment in competency-based education. This report offers tips for designing high-quality assessments for competency-based programs. TrueConf Server. This video conference platform supports up to 250 participants in multi-point conference. Book: Vernier Chemistry Investigations. Vernier has released its new AP Chemistry lab book. The book, which comes with 16 inquiry-based lab experiments, leads students through the process of data collection using electronic sensors. Guide to the E-Rate 2.0. This guide, from SIIA and Funds for Learning, outlines the changes to the E-rate program, including new rules and eligible services, and how these updates influence school technology acquisition and planning. The report (free to SIIA members) and executive summary is available through SIIA’s website. Center for Student Work. The Center for Student Work, created by Harvard Graduate School of Education (HGSE) and Expeditionary Learning (EL), is an online resource housing student projects by K-12 students. The site includes videos and written content on various subjects including English Language Arts, Mathematics, Science and Technology, Visual Arts, Health and Wellness, Performing Arts, Social Studies and World Language. ExacqVision VMS. New video management software from Exacq Technologies enables schools to monitor video, audio and data in real time. Among the features included in the system are two-way audio, notification , interactive mapping and video analytics. Edsby. Learning management system Edsby now offers authentication with Microsoft Azure Active Directory, OAuth2 protocol Related Posts: No Related Posts Ed-tech product roundup: June originally published by SmartBlogs

Geoffrey A. Moore’s 1991 hit book "Crossing the Chasm: Marketing and Selling High-Tech Products to Mainstream Customers" has become a technology industry bible for understanding the recurring patterns of the adoption of disruptive innovation. Moore breaks up the population into five groups: innovators, early adopters, early majority, late majority and laggards. The "chasm" refers to a gap between the innovators/early adopters groups and the others. While the innovators and early adoptions are excited to try new technology for technology’s sake or to gain a differentiator from the competition by being early to adopt, the later groups are harder to convince without solid evidence and may resist technology adoption entirely until the innovation has become the de facto standard. The principle of the innovation lifecycle and the struggle associated with crossing the chasm has been incredibly helpful to me as an innovator within the restaurant industry, thinking about the industry’s innovators, early adopters, early majority, late majority, and laggards. When Olo hit the market in 2005 with a digital ordering platform for online and mobile ordering that would enable any restaurant group to offer its guests a new way to order and pay from their own device and Skip the Line and have a more convenient, accurate and personal experience, I knew that we had to find what Moore calls the "target market" of innovators. We were incredibly lucky to be launching Olo in parallel with the rise of the fast casual segment and to link up with early leaders of the better burger movement like MOOYAH, Jake’s Wayback Burgers, and Five Guys Burgers & Fries as some of Olo’s earliest clients. These fast casual burger chains had similar challenges that Olo’s digital ordering platform could help them to overcome. First and foremost, they weren’t as convenient as their fast food competitors and some would-be guests would choose to go elsewhere on a short lunch break as a result. By using digital ordering to let customers order/pay ahead and schedule a pickup time at the restaurants Olo’s fast casual burger clients could effectively have their meals ready on-demand when the customers walked in the door. This neutralized the "less convenient than fast food" knock on fast casual burgers. From 2005 to 2015, the rise of the smartphone from fewer than 5% of mobile phone users to now more than 75%, along with the consumer familiarity with on-demand apps like Uber, HotelTonight and AirBnB, have set the stage for widespread adoption of digital ordering. As the National Restaurant Association’s "Restaurant Industry 2020: A Snapshot of the Future" says, "to remain integral to consumers’ changing lifestyles, the restaurant industry has had to learn to anticipate diners’ needs. Ordering food on a smartphone or tablet computer would have seemed the stuff of science fiction in the 1960s, but today it is a commonplace occurrence." While fast casual burger chains were the innovators for digital ordering and the broader fast casual chains were the early adopters, we are now witnessing a chasm crossing for digital ordering. If one were to chart the restaurant industry’s chains with "average check size" on the X-axis and "number of units" on the Y-axis, you would see a pattern that resembled a dumbbell. The handgrip in the middle would be the fast casual restaurant chains, with their ‘tweener check size and relatively small (but fast growing) number of units per chain. The left bell would be the quickservice restaurants, with their low check size and high unit counts. The right bell would be the casual dining restaurants, with their relatively high check size and high unit counts. We now see digital ordering crossing two chasms simultaneously: leaping from fast casual to quickservice and from fast casual to casual dining at the same time. Quickservice restaurant chains have come to understand that guests demand the convenience, accuracy and personalization that comes with digital ordering and that they can learn about their guests to become more hospitable. Casual dining restaurant chains have come to understand that 75% of restaurant industry transactions are for off-premise consumption, meaning that digital ordering can be a key tool in creating a great off-premise program around curbside pickup. Noah Glass is the Founder & CEO of Olo. Since 2005, Olo has helped restaurant brands increase revenue per square foot by delivering faster, more accurate, and more personal service through digital ordering. Today, over 10 million consumers use the Olo platform to order ahead and Skip the Line at the restaurants they love. __________________________________________________ If you enjoyed this article, join SmartBrief’s email list for more stories about the food and beverage industry. We offer 14 newsletters covering the industry from restaurants to food manufacturing. Related Posts: A "Moneyball" approach to restaurant real estate The next great American fast casual restaurant is among us How Chipotle tapped into a fast-casual gold mine Report: What do food industry operators want and how do they buy? How Newk’s Eatery sees fast-casual 2.0 Restaurants rising: Eating "food away from home" at home originally published by SmartBlogs

The best executives with whom I have worked make a point of hitting the road. Executives who get out of their offices and make treks to the front lines, as well as to customer locations, get firsthand impressions of what is happening, as well as what is not happening. And it’s not enough to show up. You need to engage. Have real conversations about how the work is going, and especially listen to how people respond. Ask questions. And, most important, listen to what you hear. Hitting the road to discover what’s going on is time-consuming and wearying, but it is necessary for any executive who expects to lead with a clear head, and an even more clear vision of the future. Click here to view the embedded video.   John Baldoni is chair of leadership development at N2Growth, is an internationally recognized leadership educator and executive coach. In 2014, Trust Across America named him to its list of top 100 most trustworthy business experts. Also in 2014, Inc.com named Baldoni to its list of top 100 leadership experts, and Global Gurus ranked him No. 11 on its list of global leadership experts. Baldoni is the author of more than a dozen books, including his newest, "MOXIE: The Secret to Bold and Gutsy Leadership." If you enjoyed this article, join SmartBrief’s e-mail list for our daily newsletter on being a better, smarter leader. Related Posts: How to manage change the right way 3 steps to executive presence Good values spark good customer service The art of the sound bite A-C-T your way to receiving feedback Hit the road, Jack originally published by SmartBlogs