What I Did This Downturn...

Remember those "What I did last summer" essays?

I'm reminded of them for two reasons:

1) It's 'back to school' season

2) Our business appears to be picking up again

Our previous CEO, Ken Schroeder, used to say that what you did during a downturn would determine how you did during the following upturn. He considered any downturn to be a time for retooling and refreshing skills.

The biggest impact this downturn had on me was a lack of business travel. Since 1993, I've spent anywhere from 30-95% of each year overseas - mostly in Asia. In the past 18 months, however, I have not made a business trip.

As a result, I've been able to engage in a number of projects that have given me amazing developmental opportunities:

• I started my Master of Arts in Adult Education and Training at the University of Phoenix. I'll finish it in three months. I've met smart people that I wouldn't have otherwise met, discovered the foundations of adult learning, and witnessed the power of online learning.
• I led two very challenging and rewarding projects at work - a mentoring program and a 'reboot' of our development process
• I met Nancy Duarte, author of slide:ology, and spent the past 9 months working with her and her incredible team to provide instructional design consultation on the slide:ology workshop. This has been one of the most rewarding projects of my life.
• I spent two great days with the VizThink community; meeting Dan Roam, Jessica Hagy, and Dave Gray, among others. It was a very stimulating event.
• I was certified as:
  a DiSC profiling facilitator by Ken Blanchard Companies
  a facilitator of The Leadership Challenge Workshop
  a facilitator of Edward deBono's Six Thinking Hats
  a facilitator of Power Speaking's High Tech Speaking
  a facilitator of Vervago's Precision Q+A Workshop
  a facilitator of CMOE's Applied Strategic Thinking Workshop
  a facilitator of InsideOut Coaching
• I was able to spend two days with Cal Wick of FortHill, learning The Six Disciplines of Breakthrough Learning
• Randy Emelo of Triple Creek and I created the Mentoring Conversations Model and have written a series of six newsletters to introduce the model
• I completed a training workbook, based entirely on manga-like images. The new workbook has been a big hit, particularly with our students for whom English is a second language.
• I continued to put my new-found drawing skills into practice for storyboarding

In the next few weeks, I'll be attending workshops run by James Kirkpatrick and Stephen Few, so the learning hasn't stopped.
I would not have been able to enjoy most of these opportunities in a boom market, so I consider myself very lucky.

What about you? What did you do this downturn?

The Six Disciplines of slide:ology

Wow... it's a busy time.

I've got three major programs going on at work.

I'm just finishing the 10th class in my Masters program (out of 13).

I'm proofreading a buddy's book.

I'm co-writing a series on Mentoring with another buddy.

And I'm finishing my first book proposal.

I'd consider saying no to one or two of these projects, except that every thing I'm working on informs every other thing I'm working on. Does that make sense?

An example:

I've been working on a project to introduce slide:ology into our company. I want (no... need...) to change our corporate culture around presentation skills.

So, we've worked with the amazing team at Duarte Design to build a slide:ology program that completely kicks butt.

I've also been working with my colleagues on strengthening the learning process in our company. We want to see learners practice and reinforce the skills they acquire in our classrooms. A few months ago, we brought in Cal Wick from Fort Hill to lead us through the Six Disciplines of Breakthrough Learning. It was a great day, and coincidentally occurred one week before the first slide:ology workshop.

I put the 6D's into action. We had slide:ology attendees send us 5 slides as pre-work for the workshop. I then graded the slides on the slide:ology criteria.

We used those slides as the content for the workshop and guided the attendees through exercises to improve their slide design.

Then, we opened up a 6-week window to support and reinforce the learning. Each attendee could send me 5 new slides. We coached them through this entire process.

The result? How about an 1800% improvement against the criteria? How about raves from executive review? Pretty cool, huh?

Slide:ology is awesome. The 6D's are amazing.

Mixed? Two great tastes that taste great together!

Like Long Island Iced Tea and and Filet Mignon...

Six Disciplines of Breakthrough Learning

Last week, we brought Cal Wick, co-author of "The Six Disciplines of Breakthrough Learning" into KLA-Tencor for a full day workshop based on the book.

I'd seen two of Cal's co-authors - Andy Jefferson and Roy Pollock - present before, and felt like we could learn a lot from the research that their company, Fort Hill, has done.

I was right. This is not a workshop for the feint of heart. The 6Ds will challenge even the most robust learning strategy. But if you want to create a repeatable learning process, you can't be afraid to shine light into the darkest corners of your plan.

We're proud of what we do as a learning organization at KLA-Tencor, but during the workshop, we found some weak points where we can push ourselves to the next level.

The 6Ds are:

1. Define the Business Outcomes
2. Design the Complete Experience
3. Deliver for Application
4. Drive Follow-Through
5. Deploy Active Support
6. Document Results

I feel like there's a lot more I can do with my programs to Drive Follow-Through. Fortunately, I generated a number of new approaches to do just that, with the toolkit that we received in the workshop. I have to give a shout-out to Michael Papay, who pulled this all together and was super responsive in getting a quick turn-around for us.

You can learn more about 6Ds at the Fort Hill website.

I would also recommend taking the 6Ds challenge, if you think you're up to it!