Podcast #16: Getting Beyond Bullet Points ‘live’

If you’ve not already read my previous blog posts ‘Getting Beyond Bullet Points (visuals only)’, ‘Getting Beyond Bullet Points (with audio), Bringing in the BackChannel and The Learners Voice then I’d strongly suggest having a read of them before you read any more of this post.

Why?

Well for 2 reasons really:

1. The earlier posts will provide you with the context behind this post.

2. You will notice in the the earlier posts I suggest that whilst a modern, bullet-point free, visually rich presentation is certainly very engaging and less cognitively challenging for any learners, this approach certainly falls down when you distribute the slides on their own after the event.

Essentially all the learner is left with is a collection of pretty slides, which without the context that your narrative provides may fall short of it’s intended purpose. I mentioned that an audio recording of your ‘live’ presentation can be coupled with your slides to provide that important narrative, possibly utilising Slideshare to synchronise the various elements.

The second of this series of posts coupled visuals with a ‘non-live’ audio recording. The benefit of this was that I could keep the duration fairly short, improve the quality of the recording and stick to the ‘script’ – Of course, that also meant that any questions that were asked during the live session are lost to the learner and that any interesting digressions are not included.

To illustrate this point the audio recording below was recorded live at my LSG session. The audio was taken from my lapel mic, into the audio mixing desk and then directly into my Zoom mp3 recorder.

(listening time 59 mins)

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Upon reflection, I’m not sure that I would ever use this type of audio as a learning resource. I feel that the lulls throughout the recording (when the attendees were undertaking group work) would be off-putting to a listener and only serve to make the recording longer, although of course those silences could be edited out.

I also feel that the duration of a ‘live’ recording would be naturally longer than a ‘clinical’ scripted recording, again I feel that the shorter the resource, the more likelihood of a learner accessing it.

But what do you think, would you rather listen to the live, uncut, raw recording?

Would you prefer the scripted, shorter version?

Or would you actually prefer to have both resources made available so that you can make your own choice?

Don’t forget, this is Part 5 in a series of posts surrounding my LSG11UK session.

Part 1 – Getting Beyond Bullet Points with visuals only

Part 2 – Getting Beyond Bullet Points with visual and audio

Part 3 – Bringing in the backchannel

Part 4 – The Learners Voice

Part 5 – Getting Beyond Bullet Points live recorded podcast

Part 6 – Tools and resources

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From Compliance Course to Campaign Part 3 – Getting outside help

If you haven’t read this series to date it may be worthwhile doing so in order to set the context for this post…

Once I’d won the SMEs over (I’m still pinching myself to be honest) I invited 3 x local vendors to come and meet with me to discuss my idea and to see if they would be interested in participating in the procurement process. This was a huge advantage for both sides as it:

allowed me to sense check my ideas and proposed approachprovided the vendors with an opportunity to take a brief look around my organisation, observe some of the resources and channels that we currently use (and may well use to communicate the campaign resources) and ascertain whether they felt we could work together.

I’m pleased to say that at this stage all 3 vendors were keen to work with us and all of them commented on how refreshing it was to see a traditional subject such as compliance training having a radically different approach taken to it.

Having previously worked as a vendor I understood the complications and ‘quirks’ that can be associated with a tender process, so I was very keen (from both perspectives) to own a process that was as transparent, fair and simple as possible. Rather than wrestle with (or expect others to) the typical procurement portals that are often the bane of a vendors life I decided to use Google Docs (I can’t get into the habit of calling it Google Drive) to write and communicate my Request for Proposal (RfP) through.

This had the advantage of being:

freesimple to usemobile friendlyable to allow each of the vendors to ask any questions ‘within’ the document, thus negating the need for a procurement portal and allowing each of the vendors to see each others questions – and of course my responses – thus keeping the process as fair and transparent as possible.

Several of the vendors said that they seldom saw GDocs being used in this way and were welcoming of the approach.

In terms of what I included in my RfP I used a great deal of the advice contained in this post from Stephanie Dedhar along with my own previous experience as a vendor

Once I’d released the GDoc RfP I set up a f2f meeting at our offices to:

allow each of the vendors to come inask further questions in an open forumand also to provide them with another opportunity to look at some of our existing comms channels etc.

Again, the feedback I got from this was very positive with one of the vendors saying that it helped to confirm their interpretation of the RfP and removed any ambiguity.

At that point I:

sat backanswered questionsarranged some access to some of our portalsconducted a few Adobe Connect session to explain our internal collaborative platform to some of the vendorswaited…..

I did learn some lessons along the way with this approach, here they are:

Get your potential providers in early, way before you write the RfP – the conversation will inevitably help you shape your thinking.No matter how long you provide people with the opportunity to respond, somebody will be late.Include a ‘please let us know if you intend to submit a proposal by xyz date’ request. I didn’t, and as a result had a vendor drop out with only 1 week to go until final submission, despite having the best part of 2 months visibility of the project scope!!!

Keep on reading this series of posts to discover what happened after we’d received the proposals and what I’m calling the ‘end of the beginning‘

If you’d like to discuss how we may be able to work together to bring about a fundamental change in the way your organisation delivers its mandatory training or would like to advise on how you can maximise the effectiveness of your next tender process then please get in touch.

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Understanding the media – Top Tips for getting the coverage you want

It can be hard getting media visibility, yet free coverage for you and your company is invaluable for promoting you, your brand or a specific product or service you offer.  Media coverage can either generate new business or drive it away. The challenge is not only how to get exposure but to ensure you get your key message across in the way you want.

We've put together ten tips to help you understand how to head off potential problems with journalists and get the results you want.

What the media is looking for not what you want A journalist is looking for new stories and fresh angles on old ones. Try to put yourselves in their shoes and think about what you can offer. Think of what is newsworthy - what is new, interesting, quirky etc and what unique insight you have  Develop a strategy What is my aim? Why do I want to have a profile in the media and how will I gain from it? Then work out how that’s best achieved through the media in your areas Get to know the media in your area Which magazines/programmes/ papers cover what you do? Which is the most influential and therefore the most important to contact Get to know a journalist Understand who on a publication/programmes is responsible for writing about what you do and make efforts to become a useful source. As a result, they may well come back to you in the future Always have ideas Approach a journalist with possible stories, don’t go empty handed. The journalist wants to know what you have to offer in the way of ideas, contacts etc. This will help to ensure you become a fixture in his/her contacts book Presentation is all important Know about the different ways in which to present ideas (press releases, verbal pitch, written proposal) and which is the most appropriate for your contact Develop key messages and thoughts Don’t provide too much information – it will overwhelm. Work out the essence of what you want to say and provide approximately three key messages which can be used Don't give up At least not straight away. If you haven't had a response from your email, try calling the journalist. They'll receive so many pitches, you need to bring yours to their attention Know when to say no Understand what the pitfalls are of talking to the media. If you think it does not serve your interests or may cast you in a negative light then consider remaining quiet Always get feedback After doing an interview or giving some information follow it up. Check to see how it was used and if not why not. Constantly evaluate your performance and contacts with the media

Following these steps can help you gain a foothold with the media and win beneficial and free coverage!

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