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Sales is about making connections. When you reach out to people with a solution, whether it’s analytics software, a carpet-cleaning service, or a new brand of vegetable juice, it’s the connection that matters first.
And that connection is made with a smile, a “hello”, and a handshake. Something you can’t do when making connections online.
Until now. Online presentations are a tool that puts your face right in front of people. Stephanie Grant uses online presentations to help Abel-Womack’s sales executives make connections with people, ultimately to increase sales.
Remember science class? That’s where, as kids, we got to mix chemicals, dissect frogs, and burn stuff. What fun!
Yes, we also had to memorize the periodic table and calculate equations, and yes, we’d sometimes wonder when we were ever going to use these scientific concepts.
Waters Corporation has been putting science to good use for more than fifty years. They’re a leading maker of analytical instruments for measuring fluids and substances used in healthcare delivery, environmental management, food safety, and water quality.
So it’s a good thing the people at Waters paid attention in science class. If you eat food, fuel your car, or use medicine, equipment from Waters probably had a role in ensuring the safety and effectiveness of the products you use.
Would you guess that their internal learning programs are a little, shall we say, involved?
That’s how I taper
Okay, here we go…
There was no starting gun, because that’s starting to seem a bit weird, after the moment of silence. Instead, somebody blew a horn.
I last ate two hours ago at a Providence Dunks. Bagel. Whole grain. No spread. Been guzzling electrolytes like a- do fish drink electrolytes? It is way too soon for these thoughts.
Here comes mile 1. Aaaagh! 7:08! Nonononononono dial it back! Rein it in. Discipline. Discipline. In your Liam Neeson voice, “Discipline.”
I think the runners next to me heard that. I don’t usually have to do that until mile 6. Oh, who cares, they have their own little tics too.
This is NOT a good start. So, do fish drink electrolytes? I looked this up last week when I wrote this, so- I wonder if I’ll be thinking exactly this at mile 2. Wow, we’re getting meta…
Mile 2. 7:24. That’s still too fast, bro.
So, we were getting meta… who’s we, kemo sabe? It’s just me out here, right? Are we doing that Gollum/Smeagol thing again? I mean I’m the one who trained for this, since December. I’m the one who…
Well, there’s the family. There’s my wife, who put up with me getting up at 4AM nearly every day.
Since December.
Hey, mile 3. 7:28. Okay, much better. I hope we didn’t kill it in that first mile.
I mean, she put up with a lot. Sleeping in meant 6AM. It was her who did all the work once I was gone for a three-hour run. She got the kids up, dressed, ready to go wherever, and here I come staggering in, needing food.
Serious food. And a shower.
Speaking of food, water stop. Water? Gatorade? Both? Yep. Do fish drink electrolytes?
Mile 4. 7:22. Marathon Pace, it’s called. The pace I need to keep to get to that all-important 3:13. DO NOT get too far above this from now on, and DO NOT go below 7.
Hey, a porta-john. Do we need it? Nope. Thank god. Who’s this we again?
Mile 5. 7:19. Good. Good. Palpatine voice now, “Good.” Okay, now stop that.
So it turns out those treatment tablets for fish tanks have electrolytes, and seawater is stupid with them. They give the fish their slimy coat and the power to keep swimming.
Just keep swimming. Just keep swimming. Thanks, Dory.
Mile 6. 7:14. The next mile is a little tough. That’s code for “uphill”.
Good. Love hills. Uphills. Downhills. It’s an excuse to rest on the uphill and cook on the down. BTW, here comes the hill.
But don’t cook it. It cooks you. One mile uphill. About 100 feet of vert. Steepest in the first half. Just take it easy. Easy.
Top of the hill, I think. You’re always winded at the top. That’s okay.
Mile 7. 7:23. That’s the hill talking. But we’re headed down now. Don’t push it too hard.
But it feels so GOOD. Don’t cook it. Geese flying overhead. North or south? Looks like west-northwest, or northwest-by-west. Flapping. Just keep flapping.
Mile 8. 7:12. You cooked it. Okay, that’s cruising speed. Ladies and gentlemen, the captain has turned off the seat belt signs, feel free to walk around. It’s a freakin’ plane. What are you looking around at anyway?
Geese. They fly for hundreds of miles at a time, wings never tiring. That’s you, pal. Just keep spinning those legs. The Flintstonian leg-blur. The roadrunner. Meep meep.
Mile 9. 7:14. Okay, we’re cruisin’. Really, giving people a high-five or a smile seems so easy, but it takes a little too much energy we’ll need later.
Just keep swimming. That is, until mile 24. Like we’ll even be considering that then. Just keep swimming. We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.
BTW, mile 24 actually is a bridge.
Mile 10. 7:18. Not bad. Just keep it up. Dig in, forget you’re running. No! Don’t forget you’re running. That’s how you screw it up.
Stick with this pack. I like them. We’ve seen this guy in the green tank before, was he in New Hampshire last year?
Okay, this pack is a little fast for me. That’s what I want them to be, too fast. Let them go. Back off. Not too much. Hey, need a gel? No. Take it anyway. No, don’t. No, go ahead.
Mile 11. 7:14. What is it about these flat sections that look like they’re uphill both ways? Look back and check. No, don’t. Trust me, it probably looks like it’s uphill.
Cruising speed. Folks, if you look to your left, you’ll see houses and cars parked in the yard. People out in front of their houses. Kids. Kids with cowbells.
I love seeing kids out here. Let’s give ‘em a thumbs-up. They love that.
Mile 12. 7:09. Too fast. We’re into the middle miles now. Hardhat time. This is when you just punch in and do it. Forget the world. Forget your name. Just run. It still feels good. Just another means of transportation. Head down.
Mile 13. 7:09. Too fast. Didn’t I already say that? So there are some more kids. Wave. Don’t say anything. You need the air. Let’s take another gel. God I hate this flavor. Why did I buy it again?
There’s the halfway. It matters what the time is at the half. I have to do math now. Let’s see, 1:35:16. That’s half of 3:10: something. Math is hard. Don’t try to do it. Too much energy wasted.
Mile 14. 7:12. How long can I keep up this pace? It’s time for serious inspiration. 7 miles. No, 6 miles to mile 20. This is the mental part right here. Why mile 20?
Mile 20 is the cutoff point. That’s where we’ll know. It’s either 2:30 and out of the running, or 2:25 and still in the mix. What’s our plus/minus by the way?
Plus/minus? That means people we pass after the halfway minus people who passed us.
Mile 15. 7:29. Uh oh. Bullshit. You have this. Its flat. Mostly flat. Boring? No, it’s a rail trail. You know rail trails. They’re pretty. Trees and stuff. You got this. You worked for this.
Since December.
Mile 16. 7:03. Overdid it? I dunno. You worked harder than ever. Did intervals. Negative splits. Can you negative split today? Who the hell knows. You got to 60 miles per week, a few times. You crushed your own PRs in training runs.
Mile 17. 7:11. Just keep thinking about the work. Don’t waste it. You have this. You own it. Own it. Just keep running. Just keep running.
They’re making another Nemo flick, by the way. I think. About Dory. Why not Crush? “The EAC. You’re ridin’ it, dude! Check it out!”
Mile 18. 7:13. I like these numbers. Think about how much training you did for this. Think about those bombs in Boston that day. That day when you might have brought the kids downtown to see the race. Right at the finish line.
Instead, you took them to a playground in Wellesley, right next to mile 15.5 on the Boston course. 25k. The big downhill into Lower Falls. You watched the leaders crush asphalt. You watched the fast guys in the first wave. All of them amazing athletes.
Mile 19. 7:15. I think our plus/minus is positive. Hrm. Hrmmm.
Those faster runners in Wellesley all crossed the finish line an hour before the bombs. Then you saw the rest of the crowd run by. The jugglers, the guys in Snoopy costumes. Women in wedding gowns. Still running faster than me. They also crossed before the bombs went off.
Mile 20. 7:19. The clock reads 2:25:16. Huh? For real? Goal time. I have this?
The bombs. I took the kids out to get ice cream right around two o’clock, then headed to Lower Falls. I was probably standing at mile 16 urging runners on as the explosions rocked the city ten miles away.
I had no idea. I took the kids back to the playground and got a call from my wife. She was terrified.
Mile 21. 7:08. The hill again. Just keep…
“Where are you?” She yelled. “Where are the kids? Where did you park?” I had no idea what she was talking about.
“There was an explosion downtown. They said right at the finish line.” She was watching TV, and the news seemed to offer practically no detail. I figured it was a transformer or something. They need a lot of electrical power down there. No big deal.
Mile 22. 7:26. As she kept watching, she sounded more scared. I explained that we were in Wellesley. Ten miles away. Under a bright blue sky surrounded by budding trees and laughing kids. Then the news obviously became more clear. “Just come home,” she said.
Mile 23. 7:12. So I got the kids into the car and headed for the highway. For the first time in several years, I turned on news radio. I mean, news and talk radio were always useful in a crisis, but I did everything I could to avoid feeling like there was one.
Now there was, and it was inescapable. Somebody had attacked the crowd at the Boston Marathon, a major athletic event I’d only in the last few years come to understand. Now I had trained for a chance to run it.
Mile 24. 7:03. Let’s do this. Let’s drop under 7. That’s why I want this. I mean, I always wanted to qualify. I just never thought I could, but this year it began to feel possible. I want to go from dream to belief, and from belief to knowledge. I worked up to a VDOT of 51. From 40-something, and I feel like it can go even higher.
After the bombings, I wanted it even more. Every runner does. New runners suddenly decided they wanted to be part of it. Boston isn’t just a road race.
Mile 25. 6:58. Only one more. Yeah, that’s what the crowds are yelling at us. We have this. There’s that we again. Who’s we?
It’s everyone. It’s my family, my kids, the runners I see a quarter-mile ahead. The runners I can’t turn around to look at behind me, but I hear their footsteps. We’re all in the same race. We’re all crossing the line for many reasons. For ourselves, for our charities, for the people who need us, for those who were hurt, and those who were killed. That’s why we stood in silence some three hours ago. That’s why we trained. That’s why we lined up. We don’t quit. We just keep running.
Mile 26. 6:49. Only in a dream. Only in a dream. Sprint, dude. Kick it. Can you? Can you torch this 385 yards?
Let’s find out.
Call me crazy. I’m always thinking of a solution to problems.
I’m not sure this even qualifies as a problem. Maybe it’s a “First-world problem”, but here it is: How can we create great content without sitting at a computer?
What kind of innovations exist out there to help us multi-task? Can we use voice-to-text, mobile tablets, or specialized headgear to develop content that people will love?
Here are some of the technologies that, believe it or not, we’ll all be using in the near future to create content:
Voice to Text Apps: You’ve heard of voice notes, where you make a recording of your random thoughts when you’re not in a position to type, like when you’re out on a morning jog. The idea is that those thoughts are going to be worthwhile enough to transcribe later (provided these aren’t thoughts recorded at two in the morning while watching the Cartoon Network).
And of course, why transcribe? Isn’t word-recognition technology able to record directly to text? For phones and tablets, there are numerous voice-to-text applications. Maybe that guy in the car next to you isn’t ranting at the radio or muttering conspiracy theories, but writing a post for his sports blog. You can even have Apple’s Siri Eyes Free installed in your car.
One major glitch: Voice to Text apps don’t make driving any safer, according to a recent study by the Texas Transportation Institute at Texas A&M University. It turns out that looking away from the road isn’t the only distraction; it’s thinking.
VR-Style Headgear: Remember when Virtual Reality was the coolest thing ever? The problem was that these funky headworn devices only played back content. They could not create it. Something like Google Glass will let you record your voice and snapshot everything you see with no effort. Even Robert Scoble is now a believer in Google Glass.
But Glass and devices like it (like Vuzix) still have some obstacles to overcome, such as pricing and concerns over privacy. Store and restaurant owners are already deciding whether to allow the headworn futuristic things into their establishments, and there’s no doubt some litigation and legislation to follow. I believe that, like tablets and smartphones, they’ll attract a limited stratum of superuser. Then once someone discovers the killer application, we’ll all wonder how we survived without them.
Mobile Tablets: Naturally, the iPad, Android, Kindle (oh, and Microsoft Surface) tablets have changed the way people view content. First, they’re now more likely to browse while watching television, as well as carry the things into restaurants to amuse their fidgety children (guilty!). But there’s no reason they can’t be considered tremendous content-creation tools as well.
Tablets are fine for writing, but because of the tablet’s touchscreen, they lend themselves readily to graphics production and editing. Specialized tablet apps like Adobe’s Photoshop Touch, and something like Sketchbook Express let you edit photos and create graphics. And of course there’s a phalanx of apps that let you share them on the web pretty easily, even from a phone.
Don’t Leave Without Your Gloves: By now you’ve seen Minority Report, and while, like me, you probably can’t remember the story, I’ll bet you remember Tom Cruise’s computerized gloves. They were simply the interface for a gee-whiz transparent display, but they captured the imagination of tech geeks everywhere.
Shouldn’t it be possible, someday, to use gloves like this to interface with a computer or other type of screen, to create all kinds of content? You could type away at thin air and see the results directly on your Google Glass display while sitting on a beach.
People who create content are always looking for that spark, an inspiration, and that often happens to us while sitting at the ballgame, hiking a mountain peak, or using a playground slide. These technological marvels will let us continue to search for inspiration, and take advantage of it immediately.
So these devices may make it easier to multitask and create on the fly. But if thinking is the problem, as the Texas A&M study reveals, can you create great content while using a treadmill? Anyone can ingest news and other content on the overhead televisions at the gym, and many people read books on Kindles and (gasp) paper while working out, riding the train, walking the dog, and doing all sorts of other activities.
Can it work the other way around? Can you create compelling content while crushing calories? Or is mental focus as critical to creativity as it is to driving? Arguably, most people will probably create higher-quality content when they are sitting quietly and undisturbed.
But what about those brain flashes that hit you while you’re inspecting avocados in the produce aisle? For instance, I’ve written entire blog posts while strolling through a mall. That doesn’t change the essential rules about identifying an audience, using research, and calling for action. For that, whatever futuristic device I’m using better be connected to the internet.
But no matter how easy it is to create content on these awesome tools, let’s just keep them out of the car.
Originally published on The KnowledgeVision Fresh Ideas Blog.
Distance Learning has been a buzzword for awhile. But I’m not talking about an educational method that goes back to 1996, or 1982.
In fact, distance education dates to 1728, when a Boston when a local educator began offering distance correspondence courses (by post or mail). The first correspondence degree was offered by the University of London in 1858.
So the innovators go back aways. They aren’t just the people we read about today, like Daphne Koller, Richard Saul Wurman, or Salman Khan, who are certainly innovators in their own right. But they are standing on the shoulders of people who long ago realized that students didn’t have to be present to learn.
And someday, somebody will stand on theirs. But what kind of learning innovations will they dream up?
What’s Next In Online Learning?
Let’s parse out some critical components of distance education on which the next ideas will be built on.
It will be flexible. If the fact that distance education began in the 18th century tells us anything, it’s that technology has little to do with it. The printing press, the postal system, the phone and fax machine, the internet, the social sites, mobile devices and virtual environments and devices like Google Glass shouldn’t matter. Any learning system should probably be built so that the next big thing doesn’t mean throwing the whole learning model out.
This means there should be a focus on the lightest footprint possible for a course, whether it means crowdsourced data, cloud storage and delivery, or use of a peer-to-peer network. The course should be available on many platforms without too much modification.
It will be enduring. Every item out there on the web is available to view and learn from. Many articles we find when gathering information may be several years old. That doesn’t mean they’re outdated. Despite advancements in healthcare, software, robotics, and other areas, many core principles remain stable. This could mean that the fundamentals of any curriculum area are easily translated to online learning, even years after the course was created.
So there is no need for an innovative course platform to emphasize a finite duration overall, only for the individual learners. As long as teachers are available, numerous courses can run for long periods of time and educate thousands of users in an asynchronous manner.
It will be measurable. Communication is critical in any kind of learning system, and a distance education makes it even more important. Besides having numerous ways to coordinate efforts between teachers, students, and other parties that have an interest in their education, an innovative course platform should include ways for the trainer or teacher to review feedback from students as well as monitor their progress. It should also give the students ways to see how they are doing over time, as well as see up-to-date responses from the teacher.
Some online learning tools emphasize one type of measurement system over another, largely based on which kind of technology is their bread and butter. Content-based platforms focus on viewership stats, while tools that are communications platforms at heart focus on statistics related to discussion. True learning tools will include that, while focusing on feedback and outcomes as a snapshot and over a time period.
It will be accessible. This word means many things. The learning tool should be easy enough to use that it doesn’t hinder the learning process, and it should be readily used by people who are disabled. It also means an innovative tool should not rely on one kind of device. If people are able to use technology they already own to take part in the course, that’s the best approach.
The accessibility of a learning tool puts a great emphasis on the design of the course platform. Even more than the user-experience design practices favored by website and e-commerce designers, a learning platform needs to make clear what students are supposed to do throughout the process, as well as allow teachers to create and modify their courses easily.
It will be visual. Whether that means users share a presence in video, animation, images, or graphics, making it easy for them to create ideas in a visual format will be paramount. Visible concepts are more readily grasped, and are more widely shared. Yet, most graphic design tools are still seen as the domain of professionals who specialize in their art. Infographic-building tools are on the rise, as well as visually-focused sharing platforms, and it’s no stretch to imagine that learning can take some pages from the social media and content marketing realms.
A learning tool should include a way to gather data and details and display it in an immediately-publishable visual image. Barring that, the tool should integrate with other graphics-development platforms that emphasize ease and share-ability.
Obviously, these rules don’t have to be taken as dogma. It’s possible that the next big advancement in distance learning will be built for one type of platform, be difficult to use, be almost unmeasurable and yet be wildly popular. Stranger things have happened. I believe the ideas that will endure over time will be those that follow at least a couple of these ground rules.
At some point, we’ll be reading about another innovation from a visionary building on the accomplishments of those who have captured our admiration today.
Originally published on The KnowledgeVision Fresh Ideas Blog.
Last week I took my daughter to her first Red Sox game. We got there early, explored the ballpark, and enjoyed some Fenway Franks, peanuts and ice cream while we watched the first four innings. We left before the first rain delay of the 2013 season. This game was also a long-term milestone for the team, as it was their first non-sold-out game in ten years.
That’s disruption.
On the train ride to Boston’s North Station, I used a new payment system provided by the MBTA; mTicket, a mobile app that lets you buy your ticket and activate it when you board. I worried that it wouldn’t work, or that the T conductor had never heard of it, and we’d get tossed from the last car at a low speed. Instead, the app worked perfectly.
More disruption.
On the subway ride to the ballpark, we saw several people reading books on Kindles and other handheld devices. During the game, a lot of people took pictures with their phones, of the game, the players, and each other. I joined in the fun, and we’ve all seen Facebook friends posting pics of themselves at the game. People take mobile pics at rock concerts, too. It harkens back to the (circa 2004) obnoxious use of cell phones while sitting behind home plate.
All of that is disruption.
Innovation has made it possible to disrupt one industry after another, from home delivery of groceries to genetic RNA interference. In the realm of education and training, Massive Open Online Courses, or MOOCs, allow countless users to take part in university courses, which may be regular in-person courses or specialized for online learning.
In business, online video and online presentations have become a disruptive tool for sales and marketing, as more video communications tools emerge and more conferences occur online. I remember when we thought videoconferencing was a killer for the airline industry, but in reality online video and presentations have enhanced live events, while the real killer apps aren’t just about communication, but collaboration.
Harvard Business School professor Clayton M. Christensen has led the discussion on disruptive innovation for years. His books have focused on new technologies and mechanisms that have changed companies, industries, and the world. We think of mobile devices and social websites as disruptive innovations, and they are; but it doesn’t have to be technology. Business methods and ideas can also turn the tables on how things are.
It’s important to note that disruptive technologies and ideas are nearly impossible to identify, except to visionaries. This is because they should be characterized not by what they are, but for what they aren’t:
In online media, whether it is for communications or social sharing, disruption is driving incredible changes in the way we do things. It’s already hard to imagine how we got by without Facebook, and five years from now we’ll wonder how we survived without something some software developer is creating right now.
But disruption still has its holdouts. On the subway ride home, I saw a student reading Clayton Christensen’s book “Disrupting Class: How Disruptive Innovation Will Change the Way the World Learns”.
In hardcover.
Originally published on The KnowledgeVision Fresh Ideas Blog.
Usability is more than just a buzzword. It’s the holy grail of web designers everywhere.
And it’s not just websites. Designers of operating systems, e-commerce sites, content management systems, online training tools, business intelligence systems, and social platforms always strive to make them more useful.
Why? The most basic driver of an interface’s popularity is that people have a productive time using it.
Usability means e-commerce sites that get found and help shoppers complete the sale. It means marketing automation tools that provide useful feedback for making sales and marketing decisions. It means interactive online games with intuitive controls that are easy to figure out.
It also means online presentation hosting platforms that make content easy to publish and share.
