Welcome to the May, 2010 issue of Element K News, the e-Learning newsletter from Element K®, intended for our customers and other friends! Element K News provides a monthly update of our latest e-Learning product releases. But it goes beyond that, variously including partner spotlights, dates of upcoming Element K webinars and conferences, highlights from Element K Blog, and more. This month includes several special announcements and many exciting product updates, so please read on!

• Barriers to Effective Learning in Organizations
• Has Social Learning Been Unleashed in Your Organization Yet?
  
• What's New at Element K Blog

• Element K's KnowledgeHub LMS Wins a Brandon Hall Silver Award
  
• Element K Included among Training Outsourcing Top 20 for Fifth Year 

• Conference: May 16-19
  ASTD 2010 International Conference and Exposition

• Special Announcement! Element K Introduces New Offering Covering Government Compliance Programs
• Special Announcement! Element K Technical Support Now Available 24-Hours/Day
  
• e-Learning Courses
  
• Knowledge Portals
• Fifty Lessons Videos
• Audio MP3 Course Content
  
• GetAbstract Book Summaries
• Did You Know?

Barriers to Effective Learning in Organizations 

Every organization faces its own set of challenges when it comes to promoting effective learning: different strengths, limitations, barriers, and so on. Some barriers are more common than others, but how to overcome them is not always clear.

Charles Jennings, industry thought leader and former CLO at Thomson Reuters, recently wrote on this topic at his excellent blog: Five Barriers to Effective Learning in Organizations. He asked the question: "What barriers need to be overcome if L&D departments are to optimize their operations, increase the value they add to workforce performance and productivity, and remain relevant?" Jennings identifies five common barriers, and provides insights and suggestions on how to tackle each:

• Efficiency. How do you raise the efficiency of your learning and development efforts? Are you focusing on learning or on performance, on inputs or on outputs? Do you regularly analyze the root cause in the gaps between expected and actual performance?
• Inertia. Inertia can be the enemy of necessary change, and yet the pace of change needed in the L&D industry is increasing. One factor of inertia is risk aversion: how risk averse or risk tolerant is your L&D organization? What are you doing to promote experimentation and innovation and to become less risk averse?
• Convenience. Does your organization suffer from a "conspiracy of convenience?" Read Jennings' article to recognize the parts of this "conspiracy," and how you can avoid it by evolving from being a type of fulfillment service to being a trusted advisor in your organization.
• Training Mindset. Have you shifted away from a "training mindset," to focus on the output of performance rather than the input of training?
• Manager Engagement. Managers play a vital role in raising employee performance. Those who are effective at developing their employees see increased retention, commitment, and ability to respond to change from their team. It's in their own self-interest to focus on the development of their team members, but how are you engaging with managers to convert them from being a barrier to being focused on L&D activities?

Read Jennings' entire article for all of his insights and suggestions. Which of the barriers he identified do you face in your organization? Are there additional barriers you face, not captured in these five? What sorts of learning solutions have you successfully employed to tackle the barriers you have faced?

Contact your Element K Account Executive or Learning Consultant to learn more about how Element K's learning content and delivery solutions can help you overcome your organization's learning and development barriers.

Has Social Learning Been Unleashed in Your Organization Yet?

Every week there are more articles in industry magazines, blogs, and elsewhere about the rise of enterprise "social learning" -- in essence, the use of social media/Web 2.0 technologies to better enable collaboration and informal learning inside of organizations. Numerous organizations have been early adopters, blazing the trails and learning the lessons that create better practices for everyone else. Postings at Element K Blog often focus on this area, including links to the latest thought leadership in social learning in the regular Learning and Development Roundup postings.

The April 2010 issue of Chief Learning Officer magazine included an excellent piece on social learning, Social Learning Unleashed, by Jeanne Meister and Karie Willyerd. They are co-authors of the new book The 2020 Workplace: How Innovative Companies Attract, Develop, and Keep Tomorrow's Employees Today, and this article is adapted from chapter six of the book. They describe several leading organizations -- Sun Microsystems, Cerner Corp., Oce, IBM, and CA -- and how they have used "Enterprise 2.0" successfully to "create a new way of working, learning, and communicating in the global workplace." The article also includes 10 guidelines "to consider in creating, organizing, and planning the rollout of an Enterprise 2.0 initiative."

• Get senior executives to lead by example.
• Build Enterprise 2.0 into the workflow.
• Develop and seed new communities with content through community managers.
• Consider creating communities as a follow-on to formal training.
• Err on the side of creating an open culture.
• Create ambassadors to be evangelists.
• Trust employees to self-monitor.
• Train employees on how to use social media responsibly and actively contribute.
• Link participation in Enterprise 2.0 to performance management.
• Focus on incentives that link to increases in employee performance.

Read the entire article for their insights on each of these guidelines, and think about the following questions: What role should you play as a learning leader in guiding your organization's adoption of social media/Web 2.0 technologies? What other parts of your organization should you actively engage with, so that you can be a leader in this effort, and not a follower? Where does social learning fit into your various learning programs, that is, what is the best blend for your organization of social learning with existing formal learning (classroom and e-Learning courses) and informal learning practices?

For many additional insights, be sure to see our whitepaper "Blending Web 2.0 Technologies with Traditional Formal Learning." And contact your Element K Account Executive or Learning Consultant to learn more about the collaborative technologies that are integrated into Element K's robust Learning Management System, KnowledgeHub.
 

What's New at Element K Blog

At Element K Blog,we provide commentary and insights on the Learning and Development industry. This includes reports on industry conferences, pointers to the best industry resource sites, and the regular feature Learning and Development Roundup, where we point you to key resources and opinions from the past four to six weeks.

Here is what you'll find at Element K Blog recently:

• Learning and Development Roundup (Vol. 12) - Includes links to items from Elliott Masie, David Mallon, Janet Clarey, Tony Karrer, Jane Hart, Lance Dublin, and more.
• Jane Hart's Social Learning Academy and 2010 Tools Survey - Highlighting some of Jane Hart's latest resources on social learning, and noting the launch of her annual learning tools survey.
• On the Garden Metaphor - Are you familiar with the garden metaphor?
• Learning and Development Roundup (Vol. 11) - Includes links to items from Karl Kapp, Clark Quinn, Will Thalheimer, Harold Jarche, Judy Brown, Marcia Conner, and more.
• An IT Training Puzzle: Learning from Real Equipment, but Not at High Cost - Background on a common training problem that many IT organizations face, and the solution that "virtual labs" provide.

We hope you'll check out Element K Blog, come back regularly, and add us to your RSS reader. Also, if you use Twitter, you can follow us there at our account @Element_K.
 

Conference: ASTD 2010 International Conference and Exposition

May 16-19, 2010, Chicago, IL
"Held each spring, this premier event for workplace learning and performance professionals welcomes attendees from more than 70 countries. The conference features 300+ educational sessions from industry-leading experts, and a world-class EXPO filled with the latest products and services available from top suppliers."

For more information about this conference, see the ASTD 2010 ICE site.

For more information about conferences that Element K will be participating in, see the Element K Events page.

For more information about our webinars, see the Element K Webinars page.

Special Announcement!

Element K Introduces New Offering Covering Government Compliance Programs

This offering provides targeted training solutions for public sector employees, government agencies, and organizations that do business with the U.S. Federal Government. Available courses include:

• The U.S. Constitution
• Government Ethics
• No FEAR Act
• Green Fundamentals

Courses in development for release this year include:

• Federal Budgeting Process
• Proper Use of Government Charge Cards
• Accessibility and Section 508 Awareness
• Reasonable Accommodation
• Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA)
• Pre-Retirement Planning for FERS
• Privacy Awareness
• Information Security Awareness
• Workplace Safety

For more information, please visit http://www.elementk.com/learning-solutions/government.
 

Special Announcement!

Element K Technical Support Now Available 24-Hours/Day

As part of a complete end-to-end solution, Element K includes technical support for learners, administrators, and other individuals within the organization to support KnowledgeHub, ContentHub, and our courses. Element K provides all levels of support, starting with the first contact (Level 1) through all levels of escalation. The goal is to improve the overall training experience for all Element K customers through easily accessible and effective support.

In response to our growing community of learners and administrators worldwide, Element K is increasing the availability via phone to 24x5 support, with increased hours for Level 2 and 3 support. In addition, Element K Technical Support will be available all but two days per year via chat and email. The hours and response times for chat and email remain the same. For the full schedule of availability see the following:

• Phone Support
  • Level 1 support - 24 hours/day, Monday - Friday, ET
  • Level 2 and 3 support - 8 AM to 8 PM, ET
• Email Support - 24-hour response time, 7 days per week
• Chat Support - 24 hours/day, 7 days per week
• Holidays (no phone, chat, or email support) - December 25 and January 1

This schedule is also available on our website at www.elementk.com/support-options/technical-support.

E-Learning Courses
Element K's award-winning e-Learning content includes robust multimedia content, software simulations, business simulations, quizzes, assessments, and more. And our massive libraries continue to grow each month! The latest e-Learning course additions in the following general areas include:

Business Skills

• Creating a Winning Management Style 1: Adopting the Best Management Style
• Creating a Winning Management Style 2: Building a Competent Team
• Performance Under Pressure 2: Working Well Under Pressure
• Performance Under Pressure 3: Dealing with Stressors
• Wellness: Blood Pressure Control
• Wellness: Fitness Primer
• Wellness: Weight Control

Office Productivity

• Microsoft® Office Access® 2010: Transition from Access® 2003 (First Look)
• Microsoft® Office PowerPoint® 2010: Level 1 (First Look)
• Microsoft® Office Word 2010: Transition from Word 2003 (First Look)

Design and Media

• Adobe® Dreamweaver® CS5: Level 1 (First Look)
• Adobe® Flash® CS5: Level 1 (First Look)
• Adobe® Illustrator® CS5: Level 1 (First Look)
• Adobe® Photoshop® CS5: Level 1 (First Look)
• QuarkXPress® 8: Level 1 (Macintosh)

IT Professional

• CompTIA® Strata™: Green IT
• Configuring, Deploying and Maintaining SQL Server Reporting Services 2008 (10067)
• Configuring Terminal Services Core Functionality (6859)
• Configuring and Managing Terminal Services Licensing (6860)
• Configuring and Troubleshooting Terminal Services Connections (6861)
• Configuring Terminal Services RemoteApp and Easy Print (6862)
• Configuring Terminal Services Web Access and Session Broker (6863)
• Configuring and Troubleshooting Terminal Services Gateway (6864)
• Creating Basic Reports in SQL Server Reporting Services 2008 (10065)
• Creating Interactive Reports in SQL Server Reporting Services 2008 (10066)
• Creating a Multidimensional Solution in SQL Server Analysis Services 2008 (10061)
• Customizing Cube Functionality in SQL Server Analysis Services 2008 (10062)
• Deploying, Managing and Maintaining SQL Server 2008 Analysis Services (10063)
• Implementing Data Mining in SQL Server Analysis Services 2008 (10064)
• Implementing Packages and Control Flow in SQL Server Integration Services 2008 (10057)
• Implementing Data Flow in SQL Server Integration Services 2008 (10058)
• Introducing Business Intelligence in Microsoft SQL Server 2008 (10056)
• Introduction to Six Sigma
• IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL®) Foundation Certification v3.0 (Comprehensive)
• IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL®) Foundation Certification v3.0: Introduction to ITIL (Part 1 of 6)
• IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL®) Foundation Certification v3.0: Continual Service Improvement (Part 2 of 6)
• IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL®) Foundation Certification v3.0: Service Operation (Part 3 of 6)
• IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL®) Foundation Certification v3.0: Service Transition (Part 4 of 6)
• IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL®) Foundation Certification v3.0: Service Design (Part 5 of 6)
• IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL®) Foundation Certification v3.0: Service Strategy (Part 6 of 6)
• Managing Integration Services Packages in SQL Server 2008 (10059)
• Managing and Monitoring Terminal Services (6865)
• PMI Risk Management Professional (PMI-RMP®) Certification
• Project Managing Outsourced Resources
• Securing and Deploying SQL Server Integration Services 2008 Packages (10060)

Compliance

• Anti-Sexual Harassment Training for Supervisors: California Edition

See also the Government series compliance courses listed in the Special Announcement section above.

Localized Courses

• Erfolgreiche Bewerbergespräche (Deutsch)

• Administración de equipos multiregionales: lidiar con problemas intergeneracionales en el lugar de trabajo (Español)
• Administración de equipos multiregionales: aprovechar al máximo las capacidad de los equipos intergeneracionales (Español)
• Implementación de la innovación en los equipos 1: ser un innovador (Español)
• Implementación de la innovación en los equipos 2: generar ideas (Español)
• Implementación de la innovación en los equipos 3: poner en práctica las ideas (Español)
• Implementación de la innovación en los equipos 4: administrar la innovación (Español)
• Servicio al cliente: atención al cliente (Español)
• Servicio al cliente: administración de las relaciones con los clientes (Español)
• Servicio al cliente: incrementar las ventas a través del servicio (Español)
• Servicio al cliente: marcar una diferencia con los clientes (Español)
• Servicio al cliente: resultados positivos (Español)

• Exploiter l'innovation au sein d'une équipe 1: Être un innovateur (Français)
• Exploiter l'innovation au sein d'une équipe 2: Générer des idées (Français)
• Exploiter l'innovation au sein d'une équipe 3: Mettre des idées en pratique (Français)
• Exploiter l'innovation au sein d'une équipe 4: Gérer l’innovation (Français)

• Applying Leadership Basics (Second Edition) (International English)
• Basics of Effective Communication (Second Edition) (International English)
• Basics of Effective Selling (Second Edition) (International English)
• Building Strong Customer Relationships (Second Edition) (International English)
• Developing Yourself as a Leader (International English)
• Effective Listening Skills (International English)
• Hiring Outstanding Teams: Attracting the Right Candidates (International English)
• Hiring Outstanding Teams: Behavioral interviewing and Other Techniques (International English)
• Hiring Outstanding Teams: Integrating New Team Members (International English)
• Making Team Decisions (International English)
• Managing Multigenerational Teams: Dealing with Intergenerational Problems in the Workplace (International English)
• Managing Multigenerational Teams: Leveraging the Capabilities of Intergenerational Teams (International English)
• Managing Organizational Goals (International English)
• Mentoring: Closing the Mentoring Relationship (International English)
• Mentoring: Developing Relationships (International English)
• Mentoring: Identifying Your Goals (International English)
• Sales Cycle Basics (International English)
• What Good Managers Do: The First 100 Days (International English)
• Women in Leadership: Gaining Leadership Excellence Through Effective Communication (International English)
• Women in Leadership: Leading People in an Organization (International English)
• Women in Leadership: Overcoming Common Leadership Challenges (International English)

• Effective Presentations (Japanese)
• Preparing to Interview Job Candidates (Japanese)

• Exploring and Planning to Negotiate (Simplified Chinese)

• Accepting a Decision (Vietnamese)
• Intercultural Business Etiquette (Second Edition) (Vietnamese)
• Microsoft® Office PowerPoint® 2007: Level 1 (Second Edition) (Vietnamese)

Contact your Element K Account Executive or Learning Consultant to learn more about our various libraries of e-Learning courses.
 

Knowledge Portals
With our easy-to-use Knowledge Portals, you can quickly utilize the wide variety of tools that are included in your subscription, such as e-Learning courses, e-Reference libraries, management videos, book summaries, and more. In addition, Knowledge Portals provide quick access to relevant Element K blogs and forums on the KnowledgeHub platform. Each Knowledge Portal is centered around a particular job role, topic area, or industry certification area, and displays only the content that the user has a subscription to, so everything they see in the portal is accessible to them.

The new Knowledge Portals from the past month are:

• Java Application Developer
• Sales Professional

In 2009 and earlier this year, Element K released the following Knowledge Portals:

• Management
• Office Professional
• Project Management
• CompTIA
• Creative Designer
• Web Developer
• IT Network Administrator
• Systems Administrator
• IT Security
• Application Developer
• HR Professional
• Business Videos

Contact your Element K Account Executive or Learning Consultant to learn more about Element K's new Knowledge Portals.
 

Fifty Lessons Videos

Through our partnership with Fifty Lessons, Element K is able to provide over 1,000 videos of powerful stories from hundreds of the world's most respected and successful business leaders. The latest Fifty Lessons additions to the complete library include:

• A Coordinated Approach to Key Accounts
• Acknowledge Your Emotions
• Adapt Your Pricing Model to Customer Challenges
• Aggregating Technology Demand Within Your Network
• Always Expect the Unexpected
• Amplify the Voice of Your Customer
• Any Big Change is a Big Business Opportunity
• Balancing Empowerment & Control
• Better Small & Mine Than Big & Someone Else's
• Building Trust with Your Customers
• Change the Culture by Changing the Environment
• CIOs Connect the Dots
• CIOs Should Collaborate in Business Strategy
• Clarity of Intent
• Communicate Your Initial & Ongoing Value
• Create Balanced Teams for Success
• Create Policies to Ensure Good Things Happen
• Creating Calm in a Crisis
• Do What it Takes to Keep Your Customer
• Don't Change Your Culture - Embrace It
• Don't Talk in Problems, Only Solutions
• Emotion Brings Loyalty
• Engage Your Customers to Grow Your Business
• Everybody Affects Customer Satisfaction
• Facilitating Chaos in Teams
• Fear & Doubt are the Biggest Performance Inhibitors
• Focus on Customer Retention After An Acquisition
• Give Customer Strategy a Simple Framework
• Go Beyond Your Product to Solve Customer Challenges
• Grant CCO's Authority to Set Policy
• Harness Your Mental Strength
• How IT Can Trigger a Business Innovation
• In Fast Moving Markets, Stay Close to Your Customer
• Inspiration as the Catalyst for Goals
• Inspire IT Teams to Understand the Business
• IT Is Essential to Implement Strategy
• Let Customers Know You are Listening
• Leveraging Partners to Get Things Done
• Look at the Demand Side of IT Cost Cutting
• Loyalty with Employees
• Make Technology Simple to Adopt
• Maximizing Productivity with Mobile Technology
• Measuring the Effectiveness of the CCO Role
• Personalize the Customer's Perspective
• Poor to Average is Easier Than Good to Great
• Present a Business Solution Not a Technology Solution
• React Quickly to Changing Customer Needs
• Real Dreams Never Die
• Redefining Defeat
• Satisfied Employees Equal Satisfied Customers
• See Barriers as Inspiration
• Seek Alignment Not Agreement
• Separate Marketing from Manufacturing Within IT
• Setting Strategy Around Customer Needs
• Setting the Tone for Customer Advocacy
• Succeeding Through the Success of Others
• Technology as a Collaboration Tool
• Tell Me Your Dream
• The Art of Listening
• The Cost Benefit of Centers of Excellence
• The Role of the CCO
• The Tale of Two Service Initiatives
• The Value of CSR
• The Value of Peer-To-Peer Learning
• Tie Employee Compensation to Customer Satisfaction
• Unconventional Thinking
• Understanding Cultural Differences
• Use A Crisis to Build Community
• Use Customer Councils to Improve Customer Value
• Using Technology to Get Closer to Your Customers
• Using Technology to Maximize Customer Feedback
• Using Third Parties to Move Quickly
• When It's Time to Create a Crisis

Contact your Element K Account Executive or Learning Consultant to learn more about the Fifty Lessons products.

Audio MP3 Course Content

Many of our Business Skills e-Learning courses also have a significant portion of the conceptual content available as audio MP3 downloads for playback on your iPod or compatible smartphone devices. In April we added downloadable audio MP3 content for the following Business Skills courses:

• Leadership Skills: Lead with Confidence
• Mentoring: Closing the Mentoring Relationship
• Hiring Top Performers: Concluding the Hiring Process
• HR Optimization: Creating Development Plans
• HR Skills: Mastering Key Retention Strategies
• HR Skills: The Ethical Dilemma

GetAbstract Book Summaries

One of our most innovative partners, getAbstract, provides book summaries of the latest and most important books in business. Most of us don't have time to read every interesting book that comes along, but with getAbstract, you don't have to. Access book summaries in a variety of formats, including PDFs or as audio content for your iPhone, iPod, BlackBerry, or other MP3 player. The latest getAbstract additions include:

• 13 Bankers: The Wall Street Takeover and the Next Financial Meltdown by Simon Johnson and James Kwak
• Agile Career Development: Lessons and Approaches from IBM by Mary Ann Bopp, Diana A. Bing and Sheila Forte-Trammell
• Building Brand Authenticity: 7 Habits of Iconic Brands by Michael Beverland
• Buying Your Own Business: Identify Opportunities, Analyze True Value, Negotiate the Best Terms, Close the Deal by Russell Robb
• Clever: Leading Your Smartest, Most Creative People by Rob Goffee and Gareth Jones
• Conquering Innovation Fatigue: Overcoming the Barriers to Personal and Corporate Success by Jeff Lindsay, Cheryl Perkins and Mukund Karanjikar
• Creating a Lean Culture: Tools to Sustain Lean Conversions by David Mann
• Fatal System Error: The Hunt for the New Crime Lords Who are Bringing Down the Internet by Joseph Menn
• Good Value: Reflections on Money, Morality and an Uncertain World by Stephen Green
• How the Best Leaders Lead: Proven Secrets to Getting the Most Out of Yourself and Others by Brian Tracy
• Hundred Percenters: Challenge Your Employees to Give It Their All, and They’ll Give You Even More by Mark Murphy
• Just Listen: Discover the Secret to Getting Through to Absolutely Anyone by Mark Goulston M.D.
• Leading with Cultural Intelligence: The New Secret to Success by David Livermore
• Master Your Workday Now!: Proven Strategies to Control Chaos, Create Outcomes, & Connect Your Work to Who You Really Are by Michael Linenberger
• Motivation: Spark Initiative. Inspire Action. Achieve Your Goal by Tom Gorman
• Multicultural Intelligence: Eight Make-or-Break Rules for Marketing to Race, Ethnicity, and Sexual Orientation by David R. Morse
• Snap Judgment: When to Trust Your Instincts, When to Ignore Them, and How to Avoid Making Big Mistakes with Your Money by David E. Adler
• Stop Self-Sabotage: Get Out of Your Own Way to Earn More Money, Improve Your Relationships, and Find the Success You Deserve by Pat Pearson
• Strategic Risk Taking: A Framework for Risk Management by Aswath Damodaran
• Succession: Are You Ready? by Marshall Goldsmith
• The Design of Business: How Design Thinking Creates Competitive Advantage by Roger Martin
• The Impulse Factor: Why Some of Us Play It Safe and Others Risk It All; An Innovative Approach to Better Decision Making by Nick Tasler
• The Little Book that Saves Your Assets: What the Rich Do to Stay Wealthy in Up and Down Markets by David M. Darst
• The Next 100 Years: A Forecast for the 21st Century by George Friedman
• The Right Leader: Selecting Executives Who Fit by Nat Stoddard and Claire Wyckoff
• The Telephone Interviewer’s Handbook: How to Conduct Standardized Conversations by Patricia A. Gwartney
• The Trouble with Markets: Saving Capitalism from Itself by Roger Bootle
• Too Big to Fail: The Inside Story of How Wall Street and Washington Fought to Save the Financial System from Crisis – and Lost by Andrew Ross Sorkin
• Viral Loop: From Facebook to Twitter, How Today’s Smartest Businesses Grow Themselves by Adam L. Penenberg
• Wild West 2.0: How to Protect and Restore Your Reputation on the Untamed Social Frontier by Michael Fertik and David Thompson
• YouTube and Video Marketing: An Hour a Day by Greg Jarboe

Contact your Element K Account Executive or Learning Consultant to learn more about the getAbstract products.

Did You Know?

Did you know that Element K offers learning program planning and implementation services? Contact your Element K Account Executive or Learning Consultant to learn more about how Element K has successfully planned e-Learning programs across multiple industries, learning cultures, content types, and learning platforms.

To learn more, visit www.elementk.com/products/knowledgehub or contact your Element K Account Executive or Learning Consultant.

For more information on Element K:
http://www.elementk.com or call 1-800-434-3466.
Element K, 500 Canal View Blvd., Rochester, NY 14623

Copyright 2010 Element K Corporation. All rights reserved. Element K and the Element K logo are trademarks of Element K Corporation. Products or other names may be trademarks of their respective proprietors who may not be affiliated with Element K. Element K is part of NIIT, a global talent development corporation operating in 44 countries.