One challenge central to the training industry is keeping learners engaged . But what does this really mean? The top 2 definitions of "ENGAGED" as cited in The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (Houghton Mifflin; 4th ed - from http://www.answers.com/topic/engaged ): Employed, occupied, or busy. Committed, as to a cause. So what is the true context of learner engagement ? At its core, learner-engaged training must have context and meaning, whether it is improved job performance, increased knowledge, or essential changes in specific areas of expertise. The best way to ensure that employees become and stay engaged is to ensure that training addresses both your company’s and your employees’ needs. The training should create a useful outcome for the employee and a measurable ROI for the company, regardless of subject matter. Remember, too, that learners in your company need to know management is supportive of any training initiative that comes their way. The last thing you want is to have employees feel that they are being taken away from productive, profitable "work" in order to complete training that is meaningless to management. Finally, no matter how you present your training (ie, instructor-led, eLearning, blended) establish and adhere to your desired outcomes: What is your intended goal? What do you want to see once the training has been completed? What metrics will help you determine if your goal has been met? How can you follow up to reinforce training? As always, the Locus team can help you develop a sound and engaging training plan to keep your training efforts fresh and viable. In our next issue: Culling effective content from current materials and determining an effective delivery method. "… I never teach my pupils. I only attempt to provide the conditions in which they can learn." - Albert Einstein (http://www.quotationspage.com/subjects/teaching/ )

In order to be successful in business, you have to know the most effective and efficient ways to sell your product to the right audience, at the right time and in the right place. Time is valuable to all of us so we have outlined some quick tips to help you focus your selling time with maximum results. 1. Know your prospect; the chances are that your prospect knows about your company and your competition in some way, so it is beneficial for both parties if you do some upfront research to see if you are a match. We constantly ask ourselves, "Is this the right audience?" and "Are we the right fit?" 2. Plan meetings that matter; each meeting with an existing or prospective client should be focused on accomplishing something that will move the process forward. The only way to make this happen is to carefully plan each meeting. The first thought that enters a buyer’s head before making a decision is "do I want to buy this company’s product?" In response to this, you must create a rapport that will show confidence and trust in your product by creating a personable, curious, and caring environment. Our personal connection and trust with our clients, move meetings forward. 3. Ask questions; this may seem very simple and juvenile, but without asking the right questions and asking them the right way, how will you know what the customer actually wants? Asking questions is key to understanding the desires of a client and assuring that you are a match! In addition, listen to your client’s answers. When the client is speaking, you need to keep an open and active mind in order to get the most out of the conversation. We always assure our services are matched to our client’s needs. 4. Learn how to ask for the commitment; if all of your selling skills are used to perfection but a sale isn’t made, then it has all been a waste of everyone’s time. Learn the right way to ask for a commitment without putting them off or pushing too hard. When we are sincere about why we are the best fit, the value we bring is justified and rewarded! 5. Build a long-term relationship; become an integral part of your client’s business network. The key to our sustained business is becoming a consistent, trusted resource that provides value to our client’s overall business. Understanding these important selling skills and relating them to what is needed in your business, will allow you to build lasting business. Although it took you a few minutes to review these tips, we trust that it has been time well spent! Contact us for more ideas on how to help your sales representatives drive results. What’s in your garden? We look forward to seeing you in Dallas May 19-22nd at ASTD’s ICE conference.

Society of Pharmaceutical and Biotech Trainers (SPBT) and Orlando - Here We Come! We are PLANNING to IMPACT THE FUTURE June 10-13th at the 42nd Annual SPBT Conference and Tradeshow! This year’s conference will focus on the ever changing role of the corporate trainer and their impact on successful learning. The dynamic role of the trainer in the corporate world is similar to what a K-12 teacher faces with declining budgets and high demand for quality education. We want our children to receive the best education possible so they will succeed in life. As an employee, we want to succeed in our career so we learn about our role and the impact we have in the company. The key to success is found in the process of learning. In order to have a successful business, there has to be a plan. You’ve heard this many times but it is very true, and not just a business plan, but a plan to train those who run and work for your business. Proper planning of how to train employees can have major benefits to a business and allow a better trained sales force to be representing your business. Locus Learning tips on planning your training: 1. The first thing to think about when planning your employee training is the outcome. What are the objectives you want to hit? These may include: •             Increased sales productivity. A company can efficiently target customers and increase revenue for the business with a well-trained sales team. •             Lower employee turnover. Employees that are less likely to fail are less likely to leave. •             Tied very closely with turnover is improving morale. Employees that are well trained will have a better sense of purpose and vision to see how the company’s goals fit into society. •             Improving customer relations. Trained employees that understand the importance of building customer relations, will improve business because customers will return and recommend your services. 2. Decide how to train your sales employees: •             Who should do the training? •             Where it should take place? •             What is the method of training that will be used? •             How will we evaluate the training and the employees to make sure it was effective? 3. Employees who are eager to learn and are able to pick up new concepts will be successful and will help the company improve. Evaluating the employees after the training can offer a good measure of the learning success: •             Reaction- do the employees seem pleased with the training? •             Learning- how much information is being absorbed by the learner? •             Behavior- actions speak louder than words so watch to see if the learner has changed. •             Results- can you measure any results that came from the training program? Planning your training outcomes leads to better learning! This can directly affect sales, improve customer relations and lessen employee turnover. My 8th grade math teacher made learning fun with a planned approach. This lead to better understanding of the concepts and we all know how understanding match can affect overall success. Come see us at the Peabody Orlando, Booth #315 from June 10-13th at the 42nd Annual SPBT Conference and Tradeshow. We’ll show you how to improve the outcomes of your training with a planned approach to learning!

Locus Learning tips on changing your learning game: One of the themes for the SPBT Conference this year, is focusing on better Breadth and Depth for Learning. We are excited to be looking at a deeper learning experience, which is essential for engaging employees and driving performance changes. Websters tells us that the definition of Breadth (for knowledge) is to understand concepts in a broad and all-encompassing manner. Websters also helps us define Depth (for knowledge) as the extent to master a body of knowledge. Or as we say, taking a deep dive! The University of Guelph in Ontario Canada is looking into the Depth and Breadth of Understanding with their Graduate Studies. Their focus mirrors our thoughts on learning: Depth and Breadth are interrelated and mastering a skill and body of knowledge for an employee centers around engaging the learner so they want to know more! Promoting the engagement of learning will contribute to the love of learning. As we know with learning, we deliver new information in stages: Simple consciousness of new ideas Creation of interrelations between ideas Peaking curiosity and desire to apply the information Integration of new knowledge We believe in changing the game with consistent points of true engagement that drive learning to the level of integration. We are using various blended approaches, with digital and traditional materials, that are driving engagement and integration. We are focusing on some new methods to deliver workshops as a Genius Forum (brainstorming on steroids) and adding games and mobile reinforcements to all aspects of our training programs. The more layers of information and reinforcement of key messages, the more engagement increases and the results for the learner will be seen. Come join us to see how we are changing the game on learning at SPBT at the Gaylord Texan in Grapevine TX, June 9-11th for 2 workshops: Beyond the DSA - iPad Utilization for 2014: Culture Eats Strategy for Breakfast - An Experiential Forum to Explore Excellence in Blended Learning and at the Solutions Marketplace/HR Forum with ASTD and SHRM, June 25th at the San Diego Air and Space Museum.

Social Media is Changing How We Learn! Move over marketing, sales, and human resources. Competitive organizations are also utilizing social media for learning and development. While the challenges may be obvious and the greatest obstacle is retaining control, a closely monitored social learning plan can be the key to efficient information transfer and driving learning engagement. Learn more about Social Learning and additional Technology Trends at the upcoming L-TEN Annual Conference in Phoenix. On Tuesday, June 2nd, our Thought Leader Panel will explore, "How Do We Leverage Technology for Optimized and Evidence Based Learning?" Sounds interesting, right? But where to begin? Your head is spinning with compliance issues. Sure, there are challenges ahead, like defining guidelines and making sure the content is appropriate. Who are we to shy away from such challenges when learner engagement is at stake? Reaching the learner in the ways that they like to learn is the key - through classroom, self-directed, application and through mobile platforms. The possibilities of a well executed social learning strategy tie together all the ways that learning can be blended: Driving engagement for employees, teams and clients that leads to focused attention about your products and services. Speed of dissemination is also key. This is also driven by the rate at which your learner consumes information from social media. Collaborative opportunities are a plus, along with the potential for global reach and an expanded sphere of influence. Data is easy to tag and built in analytics allow tracking of learner behavior patterns. Social learning allows for cross-divisional and cross-functional communication, alleviating our traditional communication and training silos. One of our favorite reasons is to REINFORCE learning concepts to help with retention! Are you ready to learn more about developing your social learning strategy? Contact Locus online today and let us help you analyze your current social learning strategy and determine the best blend of content and technology to reach your competitive advantage. Learn more about Social Learning and additional Technology Trends at the upcoming L-TEN Annual Conference in Phoenix. Share in the discussion with our Thought Leader Panel on Tuesday, June 2nd, as we explore the question, "How Do We Leverage Technology for Optimized and Evidence Based Learning?" Locus will also be exhibiting at the L-TEN Annual Conference and we look forward to seeing you in person at the show!

The Ultimate Learning Solution at The 44th L-TEN Annual Conference The appropriate blend of learning and technology can make the difference between learner apathy and engagement! Make the most of your conference experience by planning your expected outcomes. This will help you integrate new trends and additional strategies into your 2016 programs. Here are our conference priorities, focusing on the business strategies first and how training fits into the overall business in order to align blending learning and technology: View From Above: Strategy (Heads of Learning) - Take a step back and look at the bigger picture. Assess trends and define and evaluate your organization’s learning strategy, ensuring business alignment. Once alignment is reached in different aspects of the company, the company can create and move forward developing successful strategies for the future. Mobile and eLearning - Learn from case studies of technology roll-outs and talk about what’s next. The industry is changing and the more digitized world will allow companies to roll out new ways of learning. Global Learning - See how companies today and moving forward will address globalization of the classroom as well as self-directed and virtual classroom education. Businesses that can embrace the globalization of learning will be able to get ahead and thrive. Do you need help determining an optimal blend of learning and technology? Learn more about blending Learning and additional Technology Trends at the upcoming L-TEN Annual Conference in Phoenix. Share in the discussion with our Thought Leader Panel on Tuesday, June 2nd, as we explore the question, "How Do We Leverage Technology for Optimized and Evidence Based Learning?" Locus will also be exhibiting at the L-TEN Annual Conference booth #120 and look forward to seeing you in person at the show! If you are not attending the conference, contact Locus today and let us help you analyze your current strategy and determine the best blend of content and technology to optimize learner engagement. www.locusmedia.com, 760-757-8511.

  Join Enspire Learning’s Robert Bell and ConAgra’s Jennie Reid and Randy Esterling at the Training 2013 Conference & Expo, Feb 18-20 at Disney’s Coronado Springs Resort in Orlando! Robert and the ConAgra team will host a talk on "Designing Talent Management Training Simulations for Managers". Drawing from experience gained during Enspire/ConAgra engagements, the talk will offer tips, lessons learned, and best practices in talent management sim development. We hope to see you there!  

    Partnership for a Drug Free Texas generates advertising and media exposure to encourage Texas youths to make wise choices about alcohol and other drugs. Houndstooth designed and developed a series of educational videos in collaboration with Enspire writers and Sherry Matthews Advocacy Marketing. This series of four videos (three are up, with the fourth to follow next week) appear on the landing page of drugfreetexas.org. Each video unfolds as a narrative, and interleaves a dramatic storyline with facts and statistics about the drugs in question.

Enspire CEO Bjorn Billhardt was sworn in as a US Citizen yesterday afternoon. The Enspire team celebrated in true American style with apple pie, American beverages, and lots of red, white, and blue. Congratulations, Bjorn!

Hello, everyone. Like the proverbial bad penny, I’m back with another "Anatomy of a Game." Last time, I talked about indie breakout Minecraft. This time, I’m going to pivot 180 degrees and talk about multimillion dollar colossus Grand Theft Auto V, which released recently on Xbox 360 and Playstation 3. Unless you have been living in a cave (with wifi, hopefully), there’s a pretty good chance you’ve heard someone talking about this game, even if it’s just a politician wringing his hands because won’t someone think of the children? The game is big. It made over $1 billion the first weekend it was released, and will doubtless go on to earn zillions more. So what the heck is this game? Why does it get people so bent out of shape? What does it teach? Grand Theft Auto V (abbreviated, henceforth as "GTAV") is a member of (and its forbearers are, in many ways, the progenitors of) the genre often described as "free-roaming" or "open-world" games. Prior to Minecraft, games of this type were also sometimes called "sandbox games," but the genre has more structure than "sandbox" implies and that term is more accurately applied to games like Minecraft and Terraria. As one might assume, open-world games take place in - wait for it - an open world! Thanks for reading. Come back again soon! You’re still here? More? Ugh. You people and your demands! Fine. Where was I? Open world. Right. The player navigates an avatar through a predominantly urban landscape using the game controller. The avatar is visible, so the game has a "third-person" perspective (as opposed to the "first-person" perspective of games like Call of Duty, Halo or the venerable Doom, where the avatar’s eyes are the camera and the player looks directly through them out at the world). The avatar can pull out a weapon, hop in a vehicle, punch or shoot things and otherwise engage in various interactions with the world. Getting into a vehicle allows it to be driven (or piloted). The player is given a general introduction to the core mechanics at the beginning of the game, and then largely set free in the world, learning new mechanics as needed to handle the game’s various designed missions. The thing that was so revolutionary about the Grand Theft Auto games when they reached the tipping point into megahit status (with the arrival of GTAIII), was that they presented a 3D city to explore with no loading screens as you move through it and a seemingly endless array of options for the player - the spectrum of which has been added to with each new iteration. The player’s avatar is a guy (and has always been a guy up to this point in the history of the series, excepting GTA Online, which I’ll touch on later) who can steal and drive cars, fly planes, go into stores and buy things, and store "acquired" cars in his garage. In the newest iteration, he can also buy property, buy cars, buy clothes, stick up stores, change his hairstyle (and facial hair), play tennis, play golf, visit strip clubs, go out with friends, get drunk, drive drunk, pick up prostitutes, compete in street races, shoot random people, run away from police, shoot at police, stop random muggings he comes across on the street, browse the internet (not the REAL Internet - the IN-GAME Internet) on his phone, walk his dog, and many other things. Many of these activities are illegal because, oh, by the way, the player is playing a criminal. Three criminals, actually, since GTAV has, for the first time in the series, three protagonists the player can freely switch between. The story is less of an ensemble piece in the style of crime films like "Heat" or "The Usual Suspects" (although it draws heavy influence from that oeuvre) and more like three intercut and interconnected stories. It is layered with absurdist satire of American culture which is another staple of the series. The experience I’ve described thus far is the single player game: a crime narrative interwoven with an open world designed to be experienced by a player on his own. GTAV has an additional, entirely separate mode called GTA Online, which is what it sounds like. It uses the GTAV map (an ersatz Los Angeles called "Los Santos") and turns it into a world populated by numerous players. Storytelling is reduced - missions have to be simpler and repeatable - and there is an emphasis on missions that encourage direct competition between players, either racing, shooting at each other or both. Still, there are plenty of opportunities to cooperate, including the unreleased-as-of-this-writing feature of planning and executing multiplayer bank heists. In some ways, the online world feels less rich, as some of the single-player activities are not available, but the dynamism that other (very) unpredictable players provide definitely helps to fill that gap. Also, GTA Online marks the first time in one of the major GTA releases that players can customize their character, including gender, rather than playing as a protagonist (or protagonists) predefined by the designers. That freedom to express more individuality within the confines of the world is something that has been missing from a series that in many other ways set the bar for player freedom. When people talk about open-world games, what they are really talking about is a fully realized simulation (as opposed to the build-your-own-fun of a sandbox game). The activities described above, although often incorporated into the designed missions, exist all the time, and when the player isn’t actively opted-in to a mission, the city and the game keeps going, creating a playground for the player to explore as he or she chooses. Within the simulation, the player does things and the simulation reacts. The experience of being in such a complete feeling virtual place is incredibly compelling. There is the illusion the game creates that you can do ANYTHING - that there are no boundaries, literal or otherwise. Ironically this is both what gamers adore about the game AND what non-gamers freak out about. So maybe this is a good place to talk about what this all looks like from a learning perspective. I guess I’ll start by stating a few (hopefully) obvious points, one being that GTA is not intended for children, and a second being that it isn’t going to turn not-already-deranged people into axe murders, school shooters, or anything else. All that being said, if I believe all games teach (and I do), then what does GTAV teach? I think it shares a lot in common with other games of its type, in terms of teaching fine motor manipulations and the sorts of pattern recognition that many combat-heavy videogames teach. But beyond that, I think GTA represents the sort of safe space that games so often are. It is game-as-laboratory, a place where players can do whatever they want and see the outcomes of those actions in an environment free of real world consequences. It’s also an example of transgressive play - using a game to create a safe space for engaging in behavior that would not be acceptable in the real world. It’s important to recognize GTAV as fantasy, despite the veneer of realism it creates - it’s a weird, messed-up world full of weird, messed-up characters, and fantasies sometimes portray dark things that are fun within the fantasy even though they would be horrible in real life. So as someone interested in the learning applications of GTAV, what do you do? Well, first, raise about $200 million to make a GTA-quality, open world game… Oh. Sorry. No. You absolutely DON’T have to do that. I DO think (politics aside) that teachers should look at GTA and try to understand it, since their students are playing it. It’s a worthwhile topic of class discussion, in the same way that talking about Hamlet or Othello or MacBeth murdering people is entirely appropriate to the classroom. Why do players do what they do in the game? What is their perception of their actions? Do players have personal lines they won’t cross when playing? From the standpoint of professional training, I think it’s valuable to look at how a transgressive element can be added to training to make it more fun, funnier, and more thought provoking. Can the learner be a disruptive element? What happens if he or she deliberately says all the wrong things to an important client? What happens if he or she ignores all the safety regulations in a compliance training game? Letting learners experiment safely and without real world consequence can give them the chance to explore a topic in a deeper and more complete way, and can make the experience more fun and more memorable. Have you played GTAV or GTA Online? What do you think about the game? Have you tried incorporating GTAV or other console games into classroom discussions? Feel free to provide your thoughts in the comments! You can also look me up on Xbox Live as MrSunshine. Feel free to send me a friend request, but be sure to mention that you read this blog so I know to add you! The post Anatomy of a Game: Grand Theft Auto V appeared first on Enspire.