We’ve been listening! Our customers are telling us they want Blueline innovation… but at a lower cost and with high value. We’ve borrowed a little bit of seasonal North Pole magic to make your wishes come true.

Today, we’re introducing lower cost-alternatives to Blueline custom training solutions. But we’ve got a few other surprises under the tree, including innovative methods for saving on travel costs, implementing mobile learning, and sharing training and communications resources.

Introducing a new suite of high-value, low-cost solutions from Blueline Simulations:

eBooks: The contemporary online elearning solution that can also be delivered via iOS, Android and Blackberry mobile devices.

Imagine your favorite interactive “magazine” format (e.g. CNN.com or the Wall Street Journal Online). As a learning and communication tool, these eBooks are incredibly effective… and are far more accepted by the new generation of learners than old school rapid development platforms like Captivate, Lectora and Articulate.

And the new technologies introduced in 2011 enable our team of developers to design eBooks that will run on all Apple iOS devices (iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad), as well as Android devices and Blackberry’s new Playbook tablet.

In other words, it’s a single solution for a broadly distributed audience operating on multiple operating systems. The applications are endless, and we’d love to show you some of the innovative ways we’ve put eBooks to work for our clients.

Journey Maps: The simpler, faster, lower cost alternative to a Blueline Blueprint –when only a picture will do.

A Journey Map is a smaller, 11 x 17 rendering that visually depicts complex messages. By design, these highly flexible images can carry change messages quickly and efficiently through your organization over a variety of media. The icon-driven approach, simple timeline presentations, and short marketing-style copy have been proven to be the perfect combination when rendering complex systems with simplicity and emotional engagement.

The value of the Journey Map just keeps going: The primary design elements of the document can be isolated and delivered as individual graphics for use in other applications. For example, individual icons may be placed within explanatory documents in Word format, or used in online documents. Our clients have used the Journey Map elements to add context to their company intranet, employee handbooks, strategy presentations, internal communications branding, and more.

Virtual Instructor Led Training (VILT): Transform your classroom training into high-impact, virtual-instructor-led training online and save tens of thousands of dollars in travel costs.

At Blueline Simulations, VILT is much more than a “web meeting.” Today we are creating engaging, interactive learning events… while still saving time and money. We are exploring this new medium with:

•         Immersive story lines and passports

•         Collaborative team-based activities and assignments

•         Socratic discussions, remote synchronous role-plays and networking

•         Rich interactive debriefs

•         …and more.

Yes, it can be done. And when it all comes together, it is a thing of beauty.

Want to learn more about how cost effective it is to make learning a competitive advantage for your business? Call the talent management experts at Blueline Simulations today!

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Just ask our clients — Blueline’s signature Blueprint Learning Visuals are incredibly powerful tools for driving change and engaging audiences. But many clients have been asking for a simpler, faster, less expensive alternative to visually depict complex messages. Introducing the newest category in Blueline’s solution suite: the Journey Map.

Whereas Blueprints are designed as concentrated learning experiences, Journey Maps are built to move. A Journey Map is a smaller, 11 x 17 rendering that visually depicts complex messages. By design, these highly flexible images can carry change messages quickly and efficiently through your organization over a variety of media. The icon-driven approach, simple timeline presentations, and short marketing-style copy have been proven to be the perfect combination when rendering complex systems with simplicity and emotional engagement.

Our clients immediately recognize the Journey Map’s unique ability to deliver important messages with power and retention.  And what they discover soon after is that it can also be used as a cognitive organizer, with a series of images and icons that can be repurposed to create continuity across other applications – from the company intranet, to employee handbooks, to strategy presentations, to internal communications branding.

From collaborative "napkin sketch" to professional rendering to multiple applications, the Journey Map is an incredibly adaptive tool that keeps delivering value.

When creating a Journey Map, our Art Director and master artists collaborate with our clients through a simple three-step process that speeds development and keeps costs low:

1. An initial “napkin sketch,” developed in collaboration with you. We will facilitate the process in which we help you render your strategic messages in a rough, metaphorical format.
2. A first draft of the full image in highly polished Adobe Illustrator format (also known as “vector art”), accompanied by the copy messages.
3. A final rendering, with individual icons and image elements isolated for you to apply to other communications.
   

   The visual approach to the journey maps have proven to be effective in rendering robust information in an accessible, graphical format.

Every Journey Map visual meets the highest quality standards:

1. It is a colorful and dynamic visual, graphically consistent with other solutions developed by Blueline.
2. The document will be formatted with “tabloid” dimensions of 11 x 17 inches, and delivered in PDF format. (Upon request, we can also deliver the document in Photoshop, EPS, JPEG or other graphic formats.)
3. The primary design elements of the document will be isolated and delivered as individual graphics for use in other applications. (For example, individual icons may be placed within explanatory documents in Word format, or used in online documents.)

You may be squinting to view the details of the Journey Maps depicted here. (See how engaging the approach is?) We’d love to give you a much closer look… and help you envision how your critical, strategic messages can be rendered in a highly engaging narrative/metaphorical format. Give me a call today, and I’ll tell you how.

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The Talent Management Specialists at Blueline Simulations sweep the Brandon Hall Awards

Yesterday I enjoyed a little taste of what James Cameron must have felt the night that Titanic swept the Oscars.  Ok, so this may sound overly dramatic, if you will forgive the pun. Billy Crystal wasn’t hosting, and there was no red carpet.

But in our industry there are few awards that matter as much as the Brandon Halls.  Now in its 17th year, the awards program announced yesterday the winners from 22 categories.  Entries were judged by a panel of independent senior judges, Brandon Hall Group Sr. Analysts and Executive Leadership based upon the following criteria: fit the need, design of the program, functionality, usability, innovation, and overall measureable benefits.

As Mike Cooke, Chief Executive Officer of Brandon Hall Group, Inc. put it: “This year’s winning entries were the best of the best. We are proud to recognize the award winners who have greatly improved the performance of their organization and have shown clear, measurable business results through these innovative programs.”

And in Blueline Simulation’s first year as a submitter, our client partners won five Gold Awards! 

You read that correctly: FIVE GOLD BRANDON HALL AWARDS!  Congratulations to Bank of America, Booz Allen Hamilton, and Verizon Wireless for being acknowledged as the “best of the best” by winning Gold Medals in the following categories:

• Best Custom Content: The Verizon Wireless Retail Sales Simulator
• Best Learning Game: The Verizon Wireless Retail Sales Simulator
• Best Use of Virtual Worlds for Learning: Bank of America Teller Readiness Simulation and Assessment
• Best Integration of Learning and Talent Management: Bank of America Teller Readiness Simulation and Assessment
• Best Onboarding Program: Booz Allen Hamilton New Hire Onboarding Program

And here is the best part: while awards in and of themselves are nice, for us the bigger reward was the opportunity to work with three of the most talented and dedicated client teams with whom we have ever had the pleasure to partner.

So how does the team at Blueline plan to follow up on this tremendous showing? We’d like to create some best-in-class learning solutions with you! Give the Talent Management Specialists at Blueline Simulations a call and find out why our client partners have been rewarded with these and other awards from Bersin and ASTD in 2011.

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We feel your pain, because we’ve been there, too.

We love our face-to-face classroom training, but in the age of tight budgets and geographically dispersed workforces, it’s fast becoming a thing of the past.  It was fun while it lasted.

I know it’s easy to dis on e-learning and e-simulation. And while there is still a plague of shallow point-and-click programs out there, a lot of folks are savvy enough to build in richer methods of engagement. But I frequently bump up against the limitations of online interaction. Don’t you? There is almost always content that requires the benefit of interaction with other learners and a live facilitator.

If only there was a way to create a hybrid that delivers the best of classroom and e-learning.

Enter virtual instructor-led training, or VILT.

Okay, don’t tune me out yet. Plenty of us have had lame experiences with new technologies like Acrobat Connect, Live Meeting, GoToMeeting, and others, which have simply become another medium for slogging through PowerPoint with a little bit of Q&A thrown in. (And if we are being honest, no one wants to look stupid by asking a question that they fear might have been answered while they were instant messaging a friend, or catching up on the latest web news.)

VILT took a good concept – less time and money – to its logical conclusion. Along the way, it lost sight of how people really learn.

But all is not lost.

We have discovered that VILT can be engaging, interactive and built on solid adult learning principles, while still saving time and money. Blueline designers and developers are pushing the envelope of this new medium with a broad range of proven immersive teaching methods including story lines and passports, online team assignments and collaboration, and rich interactive debriefs.

Imagine highly engaging team-based activities including Socratic discussions, remote synchronous role-plays, networking, and competitive team challenges.  And individual exercises that create “whole brain” learning through visual templates, use of competition and interactive quizzes.

Yes, it can be done. And when it all comes together, it is a thing of beauty.

Do you have existing instructor-led content that needs to be transformed into high-impact, engaging, VILT?  We’d love to tell you about some of the methods that we have implemented in organizations all around the world. Call the training experts at Blueline Simulations today.

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Forgive us if we come across like proud parents passing around pictures of our kids. But the onboarding program we developed for Booz Allen is getting a lot of attention and…. Well, gosh, you can’t blame us for wanting to share the good news with friends like you.

Specifically, Blueline Simulations has received the highest distinctions by ASTD, Bersin and others for its innovative onboarding solutions. And in August, the Booz Allen program was featured in T & D Magazine’s “Solutions” feature. Okay, you don’t have to twist our arms: Here’s a link to the article.

It’s an exciting solution, and you really must see it. The program is built around two Blueline Blueprints™, and those dynamic, table-sized graphics serve as the launch point for a series of activities over four days of immersive learning.

We’d love to tell you more. But there we go, getting all excited again. If you wish, take a look at the article. You’ll learn more about our strategic approach, and the compelling outcomes that the legendary Booz Allen continues to enjoy from the solution.

Want to talk “onboarding?” Join us online!

We’ve got lots of resources available — detailing ways that organizations like yours can use new-hire training as a strategic onboarding opportunity…connecting them to the culture; compressing the learning cycle; and preparing them for immediate success. Come check out our Blog, articles and case studies or join Training & Development Magazine and Blueline Simulations for a free webcast later this month.

What: “Onboarding for Managers”

When: Thursday, October 27, 2pm EST.

Register for this event today!

Want to talk more specifically about how Blueline can bring best-in-industry practices to your onboarding program? Contact Blueline Simulations today.

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We’ve shared with you in recent posts about our overall work with onboarding and specifically our onboarding work with our client partners at Booz Allen Hamilton. In this post we want to disclose the results of our combined efforts there and the tools that we are utilizing in our current and future work in the onboarding space.

Since the onboarding program at Booz Allen Hamilton launched in November 2009, more than 8,000 employees have participated.  Survey results both objective and subjective reveal that the more engaging and interactive program has netted positive results in many areas:

1. Reduction of risk and better adherence to compliance starting in week one. New hires have an improved awareness and understanding of critical firm compliance policies which enhances decision making that could vitally impact the firm’s credibility and legal culpability.

2. Productivity gains attributed to the job readiness of new hires going through the program. Data collected from internal surveys reveal higher (6% average increase) levels of perceived job readiness and impact among new hires participating in the enhanced onboarding program relative to the legacy program. When asked if new employees receive the onboarding they need to perform their roles effectively, employees rated the program a 4 out of 5 or higher 75% of the time. This is a full 23 points above the benchmark norm.

Booz Allen Hamilton estimates that for each day the organization’s new hires are not productive, the firm could lose up to $1 million dollars in potential revenue. Clearly the new program has contributed significant monetary gains.

3. Attrition rates for employees with tenure of 6 months or less have been reduced by four percentage points since the launch of the enhanced onboarding program. This is six percentage points below the norm of similarly-tenured staff at other benchmark companies.                                                                                                                                                            When new hires have a good understanding of the organization and the culture they are joining, in addition to insights about their journey ahead based on immersion into simulated real life situations with real life decisions, they are more grounded and well-suited for what lies ahead – not surprising.

4. The firm has experienced increased levels of new hire affiliation and engagement. A few of the most revealing facts include:

* Greater than 95% of participants acknowledge the program had a positive impact on their impression of the company. This has contributed to the decline in attrition as mentioned above.

* Interactivity and networking components are two of the most commonly mentioned positive attributes of the enhanced onboarding.

* Program surveys indicate that the firm’s enhanced onboarding program is outperforming the legacy program in 6 out of 7 survey question categories, including environment, logistics, guest speakers, instructors, objectives, and ROI.

* 96% of participants have rated the enhanced onboarding curriculum, ROI, instructors, and program logistics higher than comparable components of the firm’s legacy onboarding program.

The complete and immersive approach to onboarding at Booz Allen Hamilton promotes accountability while creating value for new hires, their managers, and the firm in a variety of ways.

But we haven’t stopped with this success. At Blueline Simulations we customize solutions to meet the unique needs of our clients. And those needs are varied when it comes to onboarding programs. We want participants to be engaged. We want attrition rates to be low.

We want the solutions that we create to be the best that have been experienced and we have lots of creative solutions for accomplishing that.

Gone are the days when live classroom training that involves travel, meeting space and logistics are required.

By making the most of remote meeting technologies such as GotoMeeting and Adobe Acrobat Connect, the possibilities are limitless! We are taking advantage of these tools and others like them to facilitate training remotely.  The use of storylines and journals, live and archived interviews, individual and team assignments completed remotely or live, chat, polling, remote whiteboard and breakouts all ensure that the level of engagement and retention remain high.

We look forward to sharing more with you about our successes and ideas in future blogs.

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If you recall in a previous post we shared the “secret sauce” that distinguishes the onboarding experiences Blueline creates for its clients.  Now let’s look at how the four elements we identified amount to a “quadfecta” and form an award-winning onboarding program for Booz Allen Hamilton.

1. Context – Blueline created two immersive classroom-based experiences for Booz Allen new hires. First, a Blueline Blueprint learning visual engages new hires in a visual and interactive tour of Booz Allen’s history and culture. Learners work in teams to answer questions, move along a visual timeline of events, and interact with illustrated data.  They see the “big picture” and gain insight into the core values, seminal events and cultural underpinnings of this distinguished organization.

Next, a simulation situates participants in the role of a consulting project team at Booz Allen. Through competition, experiential learning and teamwork, they make decisions and experience consequences that fast-forward them through the learning curve of “what is it like to work here?”

2. Impression – We never get tired of hearing participants in the onboarding programs we create use words and phrases like: “Wow” or “I’ve worked at a lot of companies and have never experienced something like this…” or “This really demonstrates a commitment to employees that I’m excited about.” Blueline and Booz Allen have had the pleasure of being awash in these comments every time this program is run.

3. Engagement and fun – Koosh balls and Lincoln Logs may equal fun in some training experiences, but to what end? Booz Allen new hires represent some of the most experienced and intelligent former military, corporate and government talent in the world. Blueline’s definition of fun in this, and frankly, all of our efforts, is much more sophisticated. In Booz Allen’s onboarding program participants debate ideas (that’s fun for geniuses), compete (of course), and explore information (root cause analysis anyone?) in ways that keep them wanting more.

Teams move along a “game of life”-type visual; making decisions based on knowledge they acquire in experiential activities. Decisions affect consequences that earn or lose “chips.” These chips amount to points accumulated against three key dimensions that represent real-world success at Booz Allen. Events intervene, setbacks occur and promotions and accolades accumulate. We have to practically force them to take breaks!

4. A Culture Focus – There are few corporate cultures we have encountered as diverse and inclusive as Booz Allen Hamilton’s. An administrative new hire from Mumbai may be seated in the onboarding classroom next to a former full-bird Colonel. Blueline and Booz Allen collaborated intently to be sure this experience represents and includes the myriad of roles and textures that make up the Booz Allen organization. The Blueline Blueprint learning visual grounds each new-hire in the cultural foundation of the organization, then allows every participant to find him or herself in a character or a role represented in the simulation.

Stay tuned for the “rest of the story.” In our next blog we’ll share what has happened at Booz Allen since our intervention and where Blueline is going next in this dynamic onboarding space.

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In some of our recent blog posts we’ve explored the importance of Emotional Intelligence (EQ) and how your EQ may be even more important than your IQ at predicting success. So, is your Emotional Intelligence Quotient like your Intelligence Quotient — you have what you are born with and nothing is going to change that? Fortunately, the answer is a resounding no! You can very much develop and increase your EQ long past childhood.

The question is how? And within the context of business, how can I use EQ to increase success for my organization and me?

It all begins with the three keys to enhancing your EQ — Awareness, Observation, and Reflection.

The first step is to become aware of the dynamics of EQ and how they operate. Self-awareness, self-management, social awareness and relationship management provide the critical bedrock for your observations and reflections. Basic awareness can be established in simple ways: by reading a book about EQ, doing Internet research or completing any one of a myriad of training programs.

But being aware is just a first step.  Just like any other muscle in your body, EQ must be exercised to grow. No one’s biceps ever got bigger by reading a book on weight lifting. And the best way to exercise your EQ is through observations and reflections.  These require life experiences. The basic premise is that you must observe yourself (and others) and look for patterns, insights, and lessons that you can apply in similar, future experiences. As you apply the insights and lessons you learn, you raise your EQ.

From a business perspective this can be a bit of a problem. How do we help people develop their EQ without them having to “learn from experiences on the fly?” Is there a way to exercise the EQ muscle “safely” rather than in a critical team meeting or during a call with a vital customer?

Actually, this can be accomplished through well-designed simulation experiences that provide realistic opportunities to practice observe and reflect. Obviously, for these experiences to provide real value, they must model realistic scenarios. For example, a salesperson needs to practice observing and reflecting after a simulated call on a customer, and a manager needs to practice observing and reflecting on simulated supervisory and leadership scenarios

Blueline is effectively using custom simulations to build awareness, and to provide opportunities for rich observations and reflection in “safe” environments. Here critical insights, lessons and behaviors can be developed and even practiced before they are needed in high-stress, mission critical situations.

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2011 was supposed to be The Year of Mobile Learning, but it hasn’t lived up to the hype.  That is, until now!

While mobile devices like iPhones, Android Phones, and iPads have been around for a couple of years, the tools used to develop mobile learning solutions for those devices have made it all but impossible to serve a broadly distributed audience operating on multiple operating systems and platforms.

However, a couple of announcements made within the last month have literally transformed this space overnight.  Just last month Adobe released new versions of Flash Builder and Flex that allow Flash developers to create and release applications that will run on all Apple iOS devices (iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad), as well as Android devices and Blackberry’s new Playbook tablet.

In response, Blueline has introduced our clients to the concept of eBooks.  eBooks take a fresh new approach to Level 1 and 2 custom elearningthrough the use of an interactive online magazine format like CNN.com or the Wall Street Journal Online.  eBooks are incredibly effective for communication and knowledge transfer, and are far more accepted by the new generation of learners than old school rapid development platforms like Captivate, Lectora and Articulate.  They are a great replacement for pre-work or pre-reading, or any application that requires just-in-time knowledge transfer and communication sharing.

eBooks are built in Flash and have always been accessible through any web browser.  And now, because of the new tools announced by Adobe, they are easily ported to any and all of your favorite mobile devices.

eBooks bring your content to life!  Unlike print media, eBooks are easily navigated, have robust search capabilities, link to any LMS, engage through a broad range of interactivities, and can incorporate video and audio. And because the Flash designs pull from separate XML files, the content is easily updatable and makes translation and localization a breeze.

Want to learn more about how easy it is to make mobile learning a competitive advantage for your business?  Call the mobile learning experts at Blueline Simulations today!

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In our previous posts on EQ (Emotional Intelligence), we defined EQ and shared how EQ has impacted the bottom line for several of world’s largest companies. In this post, we’re going to focus the discussion on practical ways EQ can impact our everyday lives.

You’ve been a customer, right? At some point along the way, you’ve had something go wrong. The cable guy didn’t show up on time. Your expensive car repair didn’t fix the problem. Your flight got cancelled. Your food was cold or over cooked when it was served. A check bounced and you had to deal with the bank. You get the picture. We’ve all been there.

EQ has a lot to do with what happens next because, as we’ve previously learned, EQ is how well we (and others) understand and manage emotions…as well has how well we (and others) establish and maintain relationships.

Here’s how this can play out in a not-so-positive way. Let’s say your flight just got cancelled. It’s been a long day…you want to get home. You walk up to the service counter…the airline representative doesn’t even look up. Instead they mumble something under their breath as they continue looking at the computer screen. As you wait “patiently” to be recognized…you’re growing angrier by the second. You finally can’t take it anymore. You want service…and you want it now! Loud enough for everyone around to hear, you say, “Excuse me. Is it possible to get a little bit of service around here?” The reply is predictable. “Look! No one—including you—is going anywhere right now anyway…give me a minute for my computer to come back online. Then I’ll see what I can do.” From this point on, the interaction never recovers.

What just happened? Chances are this person has received extensive customer service training. They know what they should say or do…but they let their emotions get away from them. All their customer service skills go out the window. And be honest! You weren’t so innocent in the whole matter either. It was your “excuse me” comment that got the conversation off track from the beginning.

Here’s another situation to consider…one that plays out on roadways everywhere…and one that can have much more detrimental consequences.

Say you’re driving down the road when, out of nowhere, another car whizzes around you. You have to swerve to avoid a collision. Your heart rate quickens…your muscles tense…you grit your teeth and grip the steering wheel, white knuckled. You break out in a cold sweat. One thing is for sure. You’re so mad you can’t see straight. Nothing else matters except not letting the driver “get away” with it. You speed up…smiling…with thoughts of the other car in the ditch.

All the situations I’ve described have one thing in common. Each person involved, in their own way, suffered an EQ meltdown of sorts. They let their emotions get highjacked. Once highjacked…the encounter was on a fast track for an unproductive, maybe disastrous, outcome.

Does EQ matter? Absolutely! Can you relate? I bet you can. I know I can!

What are some lessons to be learned? There are several:

• First. If you’re someone who’s involved in customer service training…recognize that having service skills is only part of the equation. It’s essential to help employees strengthen their EQ so that when emotionally-charged situations arise with customers, they have the EQ to turn those situations into wins instead of losses for your organization. We’d be happy to discuss more about this with you.
• Second. Pay attention to what highjacks you emotionally. Awareness is the first step to managing your emotional reactions. When challenged, take some deep breaths…count to 10…smile and force yourself to make a positive comment…put yourself in the other person’s shoes.
• Third. Think altruistic thoughts if you have a situation like the driver I described earlier. Maybe there’s a medical emergency. Maybe there’s something wrong with the car. (That really happens…it happened to me years ago.)
• Fourth. EQ impacts our lives constantly. We can’t escape it. The better you understand and manage your emotions…the easier it will be to establish and maintain relationships with others. Often times, the difference comes down to responding with empathy not reacting on impulse.

A final thought! Last night, my husband and I watched the movie Up In The Air. George Clooney’s character flies around the country firing people on behalf of companies who are unwilling to face employees who are being laid off. Talk about EQ being put to the test! My heart ached for each person Clooney’s character fired.

There were several interesting ironies in the movie. Here’s one. Clooney’s character was incredibly successful in his job—firing people! Why? Because he never let the other person’s emotions, however raw or visceral, highjack him. He stayed in control of his emotions 100% of the time. His EQ was off the charts when it came to doing his job.

Try this experiment. Watch a movie or TV show. Observe the interactions between characters and how each handles emotionally-charged situations. Use these on-screen performances to build your own EQ awareness. I promise, there will be no shortage of demonstrations to draw on.

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