I’ve always had a strong passion to learn and can remember being a very determined child growing up. I  also  thrived in a school environment and was always looking to learn new things.  One of my fondest memories is when I was around six years old and  I had this  sudden  desire to learn  how to tie my running shoes.  I must’ve sat there for a good hour practicing over and over until I got it and let me tell you, it was an amazing feeling when I finally did it! Today  I still have that same determination to learn, but the way I learned  as a child is drastically different from how I learn as an adult.   In my younger years, I acquired information from reading and researching, developed new skills through repetition and practice, and listening to my teachers and family. Fast forward to  my 30s, I still enjoy reading but it’s more for pleasure than gaining knowledge. And  I  am  continuously  expanding  my skillset but instead of repetition and practice, I prefer to learn from experience and by engaging with colleagues and other professionals. So why has there been a shift in the way I learn?   According to  Malcom  Shepard Knowles, an American educator known for the term andragogy (adult education),  there  are  many differences in the way children and adults learn.   Included below are his  five assumptions of adult learning: Self-Concept As a person matures his/her self concept moves from one of being a dependent personality toward one of being a self-directed human being. Adult Learner Experience As a person matures he/she accumulates a growing reservoir of experience that becomes an increasing resource for learning. Readiness to Learn As a person matures his/her readiness to learn becomes oriented increasingly to the developmental tasks of his/her social roles. Orientation to Learning As a person matures his/her time perspective changes from one of postponed application of knowledge to immediacy of application. As a result his/her orientation toward learning shifts from one of subject- centeredness to one of problem centeredness. Motivation to Learn As a person matures the motivation to learn is internal (Knowles  1984: 12). Knowles  also came up with four principles: Adults need to be involved in the planning and evaluation of their instruction. Experience (including mistakes) provides the basis for the learning activities. Adults are most interested in learning subjects that have immediate relevance and impact to their job or personal life. Adult learning is problem-centered rather than content-oriented. There are countless articles and commentary regarding Knowles assumptions, but the two that stand out to me based on my personal experience are assumption one: self-concept and assumption three: readiness to learn. Self-concept describes how one starts off being dependent on others, to being independent and driven.    I agree that this is true based on how many skills you have to learn in your first few years of life like walking, manners and putting on clothes.   What I don’t agree with, is the assumption that independence and being driven comes later in life.  As mentioned above, I have a very vivid memory of just how driven I was to learn how to tie my shoes.  I also believe that some, like my son, are spirited from the get-go.   For example, he  prefers sleeping on his own in his bedroom, and really enjoys when he  is able to  accomplish things by himself. Assumption three, readiness to learn, speaks to how children learn externally as they are required to go to school.   As adults, this shifts and is more internal.  Adults have a desire to learn for personal reasons like progressing with their career.  To help do this, adults look to complete training or go to school.     Unlike self-concept, I completely agree with this. As an adult, I find that I need to be interested or have a reason to learn something new or I just won’t do it. In terms of the four principles, I am going to touch upon the two that resonate the most to me.  Principle two:  experience (including mistakes) provides the basis for learning activities and principle  three : adults are most interested in learning subjects that have immediate relevance and impact to their job or personal life. Again  I  agree with both of these  principles.  While I identify myself as an overachiever, there’s certainly been times where I have made mistakes.  I would say that these experiences have enabled me to grow by reflecting and  determining how I can improve.   I also think it’s important to be able to take  critique and learn from it. Lastly, I am only interested in learning about things that will have an immediate impact to my job or family life.   A big reason for this is that I’m incredibly busy juggling my life as a mother and wife, and my career.  It’s a lot of responsibility to raise a child and there’s never a shortage for me to learn in this area.   A second reason is that as an adult, I have more control on what I learn.   Math has always been a struggle for me, and I quickly gave that up as soon as I was able  to  (and I have  no regrets  about this).  From a professional  perspective, I  now  have a strong interest in gaining more knowledge about learning and change management.  As a Harbinger, it’s only fitting for me to do so. As you can see, there’s so much to learn about andragogy, and I’m looking forward to digging deeper into this to learn more about myself.    Stay tuned for more! Author Siri Maldonado Director of Marketing & Communications Toronto Email | LinkedIn

Written in gratitude by Krista Schaber-Chan, Partner, Harbinger As a change management and learning  professional, I thrive on the opportunity to lead companies through change. One of the things I enjoy the most about what I do is the variety I get from each new project as no two projects are ever the same.  Starting a new project always has its challenges, and with  many, in the role of Change Manager, I am often seen as the one coming in to disrupt the status-quo. Imagine starting off on this…it’s  definitely not easy!  Then consider layering on all of the other aspects of starting  at a  new  organization where you don’t know anyone, you need to learn the ins-and-outs of the business, and still need to prove yourself. On top of this, they say it typically takes at least three to six months to settle into a role. Unfortunately for me, I don’t usually have the luxury of time and I’ve discovered that one of the most important things you can do to help expedite the process is to focus on getting to know the people and building relationships.   In my experience, building relationships is critical and a necessary step for effective change management. Establishing relationships with the right people will help astronomically for a number of  reasons including:  1. Understanding the invaluable  inner-workings  about the company.  Nowadays you can find a wealth of information online, however nothing beats getting the inside scoop from the people that are working there.  I’ve been able to learn so much (e.g. how are people feeling about the company and the changes that are coming, leadership and past changes, what makes people tick or happy etc.) from running into people on the way to the washrooms, or while grabbing a coffee. This is the stuff you can’t find online. 2. Helping to engage the change influencers  with their peers through the change. They’re the ones people listen to and trust and almost always have a wide-reach across the company. This is important as you alone will not be able to influence change. It’s also important to note that while some of these change influencers will include leaders and executives, there will be others that are at the front-line and other levels, so I encourage you to really take the time to get to know as many people as you can.  Another tip is to leverage your stakeholder analysis. This is a good starting point and will inform you of some of the key players from the get-go. 3. Helping you to get buy-in from the decision-makers. Without this, you will have a heck of a time getting your project over the finish line. It’s easy for a company to say no to an outsider, but when you have several individuals within the business recommending the same thing, you have a better chance to get approval. 4. Getting people to trust you and your decisions. Trust is so important as it enables people to open up to you so that you can support them through the change. It also helps to create an environment where people feel comfortable to provide feedback and it encourages collaboration. Remember, sharing knowledge is key to implementing change. 5. Brings diversity to the project. Diversity is much more than gender and race, it also includes experience and mindset. What’s more, bringing diversity into a change initiative makes good business sense with some saying that inclusive teams make better business decisions 87 per cent of the time.   It also doesn’t hurt to have access to wealth of knowledge and ideas from individuals at all levels and different backgrounds. Now that we know why establishing relationships is important, it’s also essential to discuss how to do this. Everyone’s approach will vary, but for me I’ve found that being genuine in my interactions is vital. This means that I go the extra mile to get to know someone beyond work. I enjoy learning more about someone’s hobbies, background, and interests. I also make sure that I remember what they’ve shared and make it a point to share more about myself too. This is a great way for me to develop meaningful connections by finding commonalities and understanding what a person is like outside of a work environment. I also make sure to change my approach in developing relationships with every person depending on their personal preferences. For example, I know that some people prefer speaking one to one, while others feel more comfortable in a group setting. There are also those who prefer communicating digitally versus face to face.  The point here is that you need to take the time to understand how people like to interact and use aspects of their own personal style when engaging with them. Finally, establishing relationships is an art and takes time and patience. There will be times when you feel uncomfortable or want to give up, but I promise you that the time you invest to do this is worth it! Building relationships are not only necessary, but it provides you with the opportunity to make life-long friendships and have allies to help you get the job done well. While building relationships isn’t easy, I’m sure you agree that it is not only essential but also an invaluable component to effective change management. Authors Krista Schaber-Chan Managing Partner Toronto Email | LinkedIn

With the advent of the New Year, many people have already jumped aboard the popular tradition of committing to resolutions. However, as previous years have shown, most people are unable to keep up their ambitious goals and their resolutions quickly fall to the wayside. If you’re one of those people, consider looking to Stephen Covey’s classic bestseller, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, for resolutions that are ambitious, timeless, and attainable. Almost 30 years after it was first published, 7 Habits still stands as a remarkable piece of business and self-help literature. What about this book has caused it to resonate with so many people? Covey’s interest in how to be highly effective started when he began studying American success literature written since 1776. He realized that most of the success literature from the past 150 years focused on quick fixes to people’s problems—telling them that they would attain happiness and success if they just adopted a more positive attitude or used tactics to influence those around them or even made themselves appear more powerful. Instead, Covey argues that the root of most people’s problems is how they view them and the attitudes they adapt in response. Covey pushes you to stop having the way society has conditioned you to rule your life and instead have eternal principles of good inform the way you perceive and behave in the world. For the sake of brevity, this article will briefly summarize the most compelling of the habits, habits one and two, that focus on the internal changes you need to make within yourself. Habit 1: Be Proactive The first habit tells you to merely concern yourself with what you can control. Here, Covey upended the popular stimulus-response theory at the time which argued that all of your actions are in response to something else. In Covey’s book, he argues that, in between the stimulus and your response, you actually have the freedom to choose what your response will be. In simpler terms, this means you have the power to decide how you will react to situations. Whether it’s someone putting you down or doing something that bothers you, it is your choice—and your choice alone—whether to be hurt or not. Covey pushes you to only concern yourself with what you have power over, your own reactions and attitudes. As much as you want to change the people around you, you ultimately can’t control how they behave and feel without them wanting to change themselves. Overall, Covey asserts you should feel empowered to be a proactive person who controls how they react to a situation by examining their own behaviors and thoughts instead of being reactive and trying to modify situations that are out of your control. Habit 2: Begin with The End in Mind The second habit tells you to start with a clear understanding of the person you want to become so that you can understand where you are now and where you need to go to achieve that goal. Covey explains how, to everything, there is a first and second creation. He uses the example of building a house. The first creation is your mental plan. You don’t just go into an empty lot and start nailing things together, hoping that a house will suddenly emerge. First, you have your vision and plan—or the first creation. Then, once you have your plan, you carry out the physical creation of the house—or the second creation. Covey says that, with our lives as well, there is both a first and second creation. However, he argues most people use other people’s agendas, their circumstances, and the habits they develop as a result of social conditioning as their first creation. Instead, Covey encourages you to create your own first creation based on eternal and fundamentally good principles. So Why Do These Matter? Habits One and Two remain the two most important habits in Covey’s book. Why? They deal with the most difficult part of change: recognizing and identifying the roots of the problem and developing the right mindset in order to move forward in a productive and positive manner. Covey’s perception of personal change can even be tied to the popular ADKAR model. Only by first working through the internal Habits One and Two can you achieve the Awareness and Desire needed for effective change.

Home for the Holidays Siri Maldonado, Director Marketing & Communications, recently sat down with two of Harbinger’s frequent travellers, Monem Ansari, Learning and Change Management Consultant, and Gregory Roth, Partner, to get candid on what it’s like to be home for the holidays. SM: You’re both on the road 90% of the time. What do you love the most about travelling for work? MA: I love going to and exploring different cities. Since joining Harbinger three years ago, I’ve had the chance to visit cities all over the United States. One of my good American friends had a good laugh about me, a Canadian, making it to so many places. I’m grateful for this opportunity to see the country, which wouldn’t have been possible without this role. What I love most though is the chance to meet and learn from so many amazing individuals. It’s been eye-opening to see how much potential exists out there. GR: I’ve been travelling for work since 1998. To me it’s always been about saying yes. This positive mindset has taken me near and far. I have now visited 40 countries around the world.  There are many things I enjoy about travelling for work, including the opportunity to establish relationships with fellow colleagues that travel and my second family – the hotel staff who are the first ones to greet you in the morning and the first ones to greet you when you return for the evening. As an introvert, travelling also challenges me to grow by being in so many different environments, people and cultures. I’m also appreciative for the time I get to unwind. While I’m working I’m focused and always giving it 110%. The times I have alone on the plane, with my earphones in, gives me the chance to re-enter and actually contemplate the horizon just out the window. SM: Talk about one of your most memorable trips. MA: I’ve loved visiting all the cities I’ve travelled to so far, but one of the most memorable would have to be when I spent a month and half in Phoenix, Arizona. The landscape is absolutely gorgeous and I was spoiled by hikes after work to Camelback Mountain and Piestewa Mountain. The world famous Grand Canyon and Red Rock Canyon were truly mind-blowing, humbling experiences. GR: There are so many to choose from since I have been travelling for two decades now, however one of the most stand-out moments would have to be working from Churchill, Manitoba where I was completing training with polar bears looking over our shoulders. It was incredible. I will also never forget the first time I got a round-trip ticket to fly around the world. In 30 days, I flew from Sweden to Moscow, Moscow to Singapore, Singapore to Toronto and Toronto back to Sweden. SM: What does it feel like to be home for the holidays? MA: I’m often on the road for months at a time, so it’s great to now have a few weeks to spend time with my family and loved ones. This is also one of the best times to be in the city which is always very festive. I know many people may not agree with this statement, but I love the cool, crisp weather at this time of the year. While I have a number of cities I adore, Toronto is home and I love the music, people and food. GR: It’s the real gift of the season. I’ve spent so much time travelling the world. It has always come at the cost of being somewhere other than home. Seeing the world and gaining these new experiences has really helped shape who I am today, but it also made me realize how much I love my family and friends, and being a Canadian. There’s definitely no place like home. SM: Tell me about some of your family traditions for the holidays. MA: One of our holiday traditions is Mawlid al-Nabi, the prophet’s birthday. We spend the day sharing lessons from his life and relationships, and of course, eating lots of food with family and friends. GR: “Stockings hung by the chimney with care” are a huge thing for us during Christmas and something we take very seriously. It all stems from my childhood. There’s nothing better than finding a clementine in the toe of my stocking. The real fun though is spending the entire year carefully curating small gifts for the people I love with treasures from near and far. SM: Top travel tip. Go! MA: If you frequently travel for work or personal, I highly recommend getting a Nexus. Greg said “it will change your life,” and I haven’t looked back since. GR: Other than getting a Nexus pass, get out of the line immediately if there is a flight cancellation! Hop on the phone with your favourite hotel. You’ll be tempted to let the airline assign and decide. Don’t listen to that little voice. Chances are you’ve already had a very rough day by that point. What you need is a good night sleep in a hotel that isn’t 45 minutes away. It’s always a race for the small number of available rooms near the airport. Find a place to rest your head and then tackle the flight that will ultimately get you home. Harbinger travel diaries is a new series covering the lives of our consultants on the road. Our first entry is written with gratitude from Monem Ansari and Gregory Roth.

by Siri Maldonado What do Blockbuster and Kodak have in common? They were both once incredibly successful and were world renowned brands.  But something happened and now they don’t exist anymore. On the flip side, there are companies like Colgate and Dr. Pepper that have stood the test of time (both were established in the 1800s!). While it’s challenging to pinpoint the reasons why some companies last and others don’t, one common thread for those that succeed is their willingness to change and evolve their business to meet the changing demands of their customers. So how can businesses make sure they aren’t forgotten or made obsolete like Blockbuster or Kodak?  They changed for their customers, usually by implementing new technology that keeps their business models up-to-date with current trends, makes customer service faster or provides a unique product or offering. The power of the customer Today customers have a significant influence on whether or not a business succeeds.  They are accustomed to getting what they want, when they want and how they want.  And if businesses don’t deliver, well, they can expect to be beat out by another company that will.  Take Netflix for example. While Blockbuster was slow to evolve, Netflix completely disrupted the market and transformed how people watch television and movies today.  It’s become so common now that Netflix has become a verb. “Netflix and Chill” Nowadays, almost all companies recognize that continuous change is required, however this is just one part of the equation.  In fact, despite the increased awareness and appetite for change, the majority of business transformations fail. Change management To increase your businesses’ chances for success, we recommend applying a structured change management methodology.  If you do a search online about change management you will find countless options and a lot of resources including templates and tools. In layman’s terms, change management is the process of overseeing change that will have an impact on the business.  This can include, but is not limited to, organizational structure, processes, products or services.   As demonstrated above with the examples of Blockbuster and Kodak, businesses must  constantly change to stay relevant. Unfortunately change isn’t easy and with endless options out there, it’s always a great idea to do your due diligence to find the right methodology for your business.  The help you begin this process, we’ve included some guidance for you below: Recognize that change takes time and patience.  Training and education are key and can be done by calling in experts, doing research and being open to trying new things. Create an environment where it’s ok to make mistakes.  Instead, encourage your people to focus on what is being done to move forward and grow from that experience.    Lastly, don’t be afraid to take risks and fail. “Success is 99% failure.” Soichiro Honda Timing is everything.  Take time to assess the current environment and ask lots of questions.  What else is happening right now?  Do you have the time and resources to get things done in an organized and thoughtful way?  Will this set up your business for success in the long-term?  What happens if we don’t change? Remember that you’re not alone.  There are a flurry of resources and people available who can help you and your business through change.  It’s always a good idea to engage your colleagues, or to pull in external resources like change management experts to collaborate and provide different perspectives and expertise to help get the job done. Celebrate and recognize! Both go a long way and help to keep the momentum moving forward.  Most importantly, make sure any celebrations or recognitions are authentic, done in a timely manner and in a meaningful way. So, there you have it.  Change is inevitable and to stay relevant, it’s important for businesses to keep their customers top of mind.   Customer demands will only continue to grow and they have more choices than ever before.  As a result, businesses need to move at a much quicker pace and be forward thinking to remain competitive and keep up with these demands. Don’t wait to change until it’s too late.  With the right mindset and change management methodology, your business will be well on its way to being a long-standing brand like Colgate or Dr. Pepper.

John Gorbach is a Senior Manager at Direct Energy who over the years has developed a track record for business growth, leadership and the ability to drive productivity and success through teamwork. He has been an integral part of Direct Energy’s Microsoft Dynamics AX Project Unify implementation. His official title for the project is “Functional Lead / Manager of Functional Design” – which translates to, being the conduit between the business stakeholders, the project team, and the solution developers. John’s responsibilities are to make sure that the solution works for the end users, but at the same time balances out configuration vs. customization. He has been in this role for just over four years and to quote him “it’s an awesome role, I’m NEVER bored, and have had the opportunity to work with a ton of people (all over the world) over the life of the project.” What aspects of an ERP implementation do you find most fascinating or would consider your specialty? If you asked me 4 years ago if I would be into software, “No” would have been my answer. However, this project has really opened my eyes to how important the marriage is between software and business processes. ERP Transformation projects like I’m on are truly 80% people and 20% product. I think one of my strong suits is being able to quickly establish trust (which is paramount) with stakeholders, understand how & why their business works, and then constructively challenge them on processes that have been accepted as core overtime – but really exist due to legacy system limitations. Being able to bridge the gap between how the ERP application was designed to be able to be configured to be flexible to various business/industries and leading without authority to help the business evolve/adapt is fundamental. Were you working in another role before you joined the Unify Project and do you see a connection between your past and current roles? Yes, I’ve been with Direct Energy / Centrica for almost 15 years. Over that time, I’ve had the opportunity to work in various parts of the organization. These experiences and relationships have allowed me to be successful and help push through some of the more difficult situations that all large projects face. What would you say are the main values you bring or hope to bring to your approach? Care. Available. Transparent. I think these values sum up what I bring to the table. I truly do care for the business and more importantly our front-line employees and customers who ultimately put in all the hard work that allows for someone like me to have an awesome job. I make myself available (sometimes too much) – however in todays world, and especially this project – using all 24 hours of a day and leveraging talent around the world is what allows success to happen. Its critical that I’m available to help explain a business process to a developer, and vice-versa, explain a system process to a business user. Transparency has been important with this project. Our organization has gone through a lot of change while our project has been in place such as new senior leaders, acquired/divested some businesses etc. so being transparent with the good/bad/uncomfortable has allowed our project to prevail where most would have been suspended or canceled. Is there anything that surprised you about what it’s like to be on an ERP Project? This project has had its fair share of “you have to be kidding me” risk/issues/setbacks that no one (I mean no one) could have dreamt up. To me the biggest surprise (a positive one) has been the ‘unified’ persistence of the collective team to continue to ‘figure it out’ together and push forward. Its fitting that our project name is Unify for that and many other reasons. Having a very clear definition of what success is makes this achievable. What is your favourite part about working on a Technology / ERP implementation project? What do you find most fulfilling? As an employee and business lead – I’d have to say two things: People. I’m a people person. Even though we all can drive each other nuts, it’s the people who make or break things at the end of the day. Engaging with new and old friends and colleague has been great on this project. Learning something new. This was a pretty big departure from my prior roles and has opened new doors for new opportunities for me in the future. Seeing in real-time how technology allows our employees and customers to more efficiently transact and communicate with each other is very meaningful. The relationship with Harbinger: Gaining an appreciation for what “Change Management” is – and how effective it can be. In my past, OCM was never really part of any project or change I’ve experienced – we had more of a ‘here’s the new game plan – figure out how to execute it’ mentality. Having a thoughtful process to help identify impacts and then in a meaningful/collective way resolve them, allows for what could be a stress-heavy training/go-live period instead be an engagement opportunity where the user community has a voice in both identifying and solving problems. Do you have a story about a very rewarding experience or situation that you dealt with in this role? I could write a book! For me the most meaningful experience was going to India to work with the development team (5x in a year and a half). Having the opportunity to get completely immersed in my colleague’s culture really has helped me form stronger relationships with them… (the 10 Costco boxes of Hersey bars I smuggled into the office helped too!) What is your perspective on the role that Change Management and Training has on the success of an ERP implementation? Typically, I use the ‘three-legged stool’ metaphor – so with that in your head – to me, Change Management and Training represent the “Glue” holding the legs to the stool. Sure – you can just cram the legs in and 80% of the time, they hold – might be a little wobbly, but the stool doesn’t fall over. However, if you put glue in the joint, you’ve got a tight bond that is unlikely to break. Harbinger, as our OCM team, acted as that ‘glue’ – even when the carpenters (leadership) felt the glue wasn’t needed – they were there for the project team, the business team, and various other teams that were part of the project. They helped ensure the handoffs (the ‘joints’) were tight, and more importantly, identified where they were weak, and helped come up with solutions to support so that the stool never fell over. Knowing what you know now, do you have any advice for others who are joining an ERP implementation? Plan, Budget, then add 100%. Be transparent with your people. Things will get worse before they get better. Build teams, with backups – project fatigue/burnout is a real thing and putting too much on any one person can and will likely come back to haunt you. Get buy-in/sign off from stakeholders and engage them frequently. Send “thank you” cards to team members spouses. Recognize the wins and own the responsibility with the setbacks. Effective, Genuine Teams MUST fail and succeed together. Shifting focus a little let talk about ERP and Microsoft Dynamics. What do you feel is the value or benefits of using Microsoft Dynamics? The main benefits are that Dynamics is very configurable, intuitive, and user adoption is much greater than SAP/Oracle products (if you know MS Office – you can learn Dynamics). What is the biggest challenge for end-users/stakeholders when there is a change such as the implementation of an ERP like Dynamics AX? I believe the biggest challenge for any ERP Transformation is when your people are coming from home-grown customized software, and the goal is to change that custom fit mentality to a “85% out of the box” mentality. It’s paramount that your people UNDERSTAND that the new solution may not be perfect, but it will allow the business to harness and leverage data in a much more powerful way than what any custom application ever could. What factors do you have to consider during a Microsoft Dynamics implementation? How do you accommodate these factors when designing a good learning program? Dynamics is built on a core set of modules. Having a solid presales functional design outlining what elements are configured vs. customized to fit the requirements of the business is key. To do this, you need crystal clear requirements that are a blend of strategy and in the weeds, so that your design allows for future growth. What are the benefits of using a structured, professional learning program for an ERP project? The benefits are two-fold. First, it allows for a professional presentation to the user community in a way that is best digested by role (hard and soft copy, web-based training, comprehensive testing, etc.). Second, turn over happens. Having objective training materials allows the business community, production support, and others to have a reference to assist as new people come into the business.

It’s fair to say everyone gets asked the question, “What do you do?” regularly. The answer can transform and grow, as we do. Close to a year ago I shared a snapshot of life as a “sophomore” consultant. Here’s the updated playbook – still exhilarating, hyper-intense, and critically, evermore rewarding. 5:30am – Mind the Gaps A moment to blink, a glass of water, and you’re propped up at the hotel room desk. Here could be the time to get ahead of the day or week, and to catchup on residuals. More importantly though, it’s a chance to reflect on potential misses. If one blind spot can be illuminated, the day starts with a win. Note: this isn’t quiet time – your tracks of the week are blaring. Full tilt. Sorry neighbours. Testing and communications, updates and creation. Technical issues, process docs. Time flies by and you make sure to squeeze every bit of isolated screen time count. The real fun begins soon! 7:30am – People, Technology, Business Grab coffee in the lobby, game-face-nod to the team, and you’re off to the client’s office. Once onsite, you complete the setup initiated the previous evening. Training the project’s solution to the business is about far more than technology, although that is the framework of the change being implemented. “…my favorite aspect of consulting is striving to get to a place where each personality in the room knows and understands we’re working towards the same goal, with genuine care.” People care a great deal about their day-to-day, understandably, and your approach must reflect that. Sharing system and process knowledge is one thing, but two other components are also must haves: industry specific awareness, and an appetite for two-way conversation. I can say with absolute certainty, my favorite aspect of consulting is striving to get to a place where each personality in the room knows and understands we’re working towards the same goal, with genuine care. 11:30am – Lunch Jam packed days on the road tend to push gym time down the queue (excuses, I know!), so make your choice wisely. Fruit or salad usually do the trick. 11:45am – Partners You connect with those you need to on the greater project team. They could be onsite as well or at any number of locations across the business. Better yet, they could be in their PJs at home. They could also vary in workstream and area of expertise. This is your chance to work through issues and ambiguities raised in earlier sessions, and that too with people in the know. The best meetings are a blend of trust and challenge, and you make sure to play information conduit, keeping in mind your frequent and direct access to end-users. 1:00pm – Round-Two Back in session, you shift to supporting a team member as they deliver. What matters more, a goal or an assist? Doing the right things in a supporting role goes a long way. It’s also a chance to both learn from and mentor your colleague. Some common tasks include documenting technical and process questions, providing one-on-one support to participants, or stepping into discussions or walkthroughs as needed. If really on your game though, you chase down the answers to outstanding questions and bring them back in-session. 5:30pm – Time to Get Silly The team assembles to share what worked, what didn’t, and what is outstanding. It could be a long evening, or night, if the latter is more than a few tasks. Planning and executing ahead of time is great but this phase of the project demands day-by-day and hour-by-hour. You head back to the hotel and it’s quickly apparent who is doing what, and this hasn’t changed much from a year earlier: Dinner or an outing with local flavor – fancy or otherwise. At our most recent deployment, the team developed a love-hate relationship with the pub next door, which we endearingly called “The OC.” Nobody ever got sick from the tilapia, I swear. A working dinner in the lobby. If you can recall staying up far too late as a kid, delirious and laughing at everything…that’s what these sessions are like. Perfect chance to land some low blows on your favorite colleague. Slink away for well-earned solitude, decompression, and check-in with your life back home. Remember, there’s a whole other mode and pace when not on the road, but that’s for another time. If you’re still reading, here’s the number one lesson consulting has imparted so far: any outcome can be reality with trust in an incremental process. The trust part is in yourself and very much in others too. Incremental translates to iterations inclusive of success and failure, and the courage to carry on being comfortable with these two components of progress. Being part of work and project culture that understands this is seriously motivating, and utterly transferrable to the rest of life.

It seems that in today’s day and age, there are so many problems, so many things that can cause people to be distracted, in a rut, and even depressed. Our lives, while a lot easier in many respects than maybe 100 or even 1000 years ago, are not carefree. Easy is relative. Sure, we don’t have to worry about wild animals attacking and eating us while we sleep and most of us have clean water to drink, modern comforts that we take for granted such as electricity and heat or air-conditioning, rapid modes of transportation and mini-computers that we carry around in our pockets, yet somehow our lives are complicated and stressful. A person can really work themselves into a state of anxiety and depression if not careful. I believe everything we do should be done with intention this includes reminding ourselves about what is good or great in our lives – what makes our lives safe, secure, special or even easier – essentially, what are we thankful for. As I was thinking about all the things I give thanks for, I also asked my friends and colleagues to share what they are thankful for. Below are some of those conversations. One person, while I know she is thankful for many things, said she is thankful for friends and workmates wrapped up into one simple package. This is definitely something to be thankful for. We all spend a lot of time at work. For many of us it’s between 32 hours per week on the low-end and can be 70+ hours on the higher end depending on what we do, so being able to have good friendly relationships with the people whom you spend such a significant amount of time with is a blessing. As another person stated, he is grateful for the diverse and wonderful people that make up his extended and chosen family. That is a very interesting way to phrase it – extended and chosen family – perhaps part of what we are thankful for is being able to choose where we work and what we do, because so many do not have that luxury. Another person said she is thankful for so many things, that she is generally a thankful person, but specifically she is thankful for strong professional relationships with clients who ask great questions and truly want recommendations, and then trust the answer or advice. Amen to that. It is a great source of gratitude when our clients let us help them through their journeys and embrace where and when we can help. She also echoed the statements around friends and workmates but took it further by saying she is thankful for having a team of colleagues that she can trust implicitly and laugh with incessantly while all driving toward common goals for success. We have a few newer members of our Harbinger family who also added their thoughts on what they are thankful for. One person told me she too is thankful for a lot of things but shared these gems: A life of travel, accomplishments, and lessons learned. Many of us have lamented about how fortunate we are to be able to travel for work. It is not always glamorous (see our past blog about scary things for some good travel stories), but for those with an appetite for adventure and constant change it can be very rewarding. Arriving home after work travel, unlocking the door, and being greeted by her handsome and lovable cat, Tango. Work travel can be great but getting back home to the things that make it “home” including our families and pets are lovely. Some other things she mentioned include a comfortable bed and pillows and good gluten free bread products that taste like the real thing. I can’t comment personally on gluten free baked goods, but I can say I am thankful for good wine (it’s gluten free, right?). Another new Harbinger commented that she is thankful for the strong network of people that surround her – that she does not know how she would balance work and family without help, support, and encouragement. As the saying goes, it really does take a village… She is also thankful for her career and career opportunities to work in Communications. She is the first in her family to graduate from university in Canada and to be able to experience the opportunities that come with that is something she is very thankful for. I am thankful to have been born in this amazing country – a country not without its flaws but somewhere people are free to speak their minds, practice their chosen religions or no religion at all, diversity in seasons and climate as well as its people. I am thankful for having strong relationships with our American neighbours – sometimes we disagree, but that’s what families do. I am thankful for great business partners and amazing clients. I am thankful for Diet Dr. Pepper, yep, truly I am. I am thankful for wildlife and nature but mostly birds and their crazy antics. I am thankful for access to good food, whether I make it myself, am invited to eat with friends or colleagues, or out at a restaurant, having so much choice is a gift. I am thankful for clean drinking water (there are many people even in Canada who do not have this often-overlooked luxury). I am thankful for our free(ish) healthcare. I too am thankful for the many amazing people I have met and worked with over the years whom I have learned from and am fortunate enough to call friends. I am most thankful for insulin, my two cats and my husband (the order of those last three things vary day-to-day). Honestly, I could go on and on, but I won’t, you get the picture. Hopefully as our friends, families, clients and colleagues to the south are embracing what they are thankful for this American Thanksgiving, we can all take a look at what we give thanks for in our own lives. We all get busy and stressed and sometimes forget to acknowledge the small or big things we have, to be thankful for. As I collected thoughts from friends and colleagues and reflected on my own list, it seemed any stress I was carrying lifted and I was left with a source of quiet calm and inner peace. How easy that was to tap into. I am thankful that tomorrow is a new day that I have not yet met, because while today is great, tomorrow has the possibility to be amazing. The author would like to express her gratitude to Kerry Graham, Mala Gupta, Monem Ansari, Karri Paice and Siri Maldonado in writing this article.

Monem Ansari is a Learning and Change Management consultant with Harbinger SCR. Monem interacts directly with clients, primarily working on curriculum design, development, and delivery. What is your favourite part about being a consultant? What do you find most fulfilling? The vanilla answer would be the opportunity to travel. Honestly though, it’s that my responsibilities and project scope shift frequently, probably every quarter. It’s exciting to have the opportunity to learn from great people, both at Harbinger and at the client. What got you into change management and learning? What aspects of change management/learning do you find most fascinating? When I interviewed with Krista and Greg, I felt a definite alignment of values. In a corporate environment where – and perhaps that’s due to negative stereotypes about business or corporate culture – you might not expect to be caring about people as much, change management is people-centric. That resonates with me. Working to ensure that people’s needs are met and being able to help, that’s exciting. Did you work at a bigger organization prior to working with Harbinger? How does working with a smaller consulting firm like Harbinger differ? I worked at a couple of large companies before Harbinger. The rules are rigid, which was probably somewhat due to the role I was in. I felt on my own when faced with a problem. No one to turn to for help. Had to be a communication gap on both sides. Smaller organizations tend to be flatter and Harbinger is no exception; easy access to quality resources and advice. Is there anything that surprised you about what it’s like to be a consultant? Initially, I thought the corporate world would not be very human. Stale, stagnant. In fact, “big-surprise-non-surprise,” everyone is human. People are people. What would you say are the main values you hope to bring to your consulting approach? Care and patience. It’s going to be okay.

Microlearning is a term that has recently gained a lot of attention in the corporate world. Yet, amid all the buzz and enthusiasm for this seemingly revolutionary way of learning, how many people fully understand what microlearning is? The concept at its core is quite simple: microlearning is a training event that teaches one complete lesson from start to finish. Have you ever gone to You Tube to figure out how to diagnose an issue and fix your broken appliance, or watched a short video on how to make chicken coq-au-vin? Or maybe you have signed up to receive the Dictionary.com word of the day. These are examples of microlearning. Microlearning isn’t really learning at all, but rather training events that you use once and forget, or you refer back to again and again (watch for more on the difference between Training and Learning in an upcoming Harbinger blog). While many companies have been quick to jump on board with this supposedly new and revolutionary concept, many misconceptions have arisen surrounding microlearning. These include … 1.   “Microlearning events must be between X and Y minutes long.” In reality, it does not have any defined length that it must follow in order to fall under the umbrella of microlearning. The length of your training event should not adhere to some arbitrary definition and, instead, should be based upon other factors, such as content, audience, or good solid instruction design practices, etc. to make it as effective as possible. 2. “Microlearning is the newest innovation in learning!” While the term microlearning may be all the buzz, its fundamental principles have existed for a very long time. To explain, consider the following two examples: Think about a situation where an employee is struggling with a task, perhaps how to enter something into a database. They call over one of their colleagues who gives them a quick and concise lesson on how to input their information. The steps taught are a complete lesson. This could be considered a microlearning event, albeit an informal one. Think about a quick reference guide (QRG) that outlines how to complete a specific task, such as logging into the new ERP system or approving a Purchase Order. When an employee picks up this guide, digests its information, and proceeds to complete their task, they have completed a microlearning event. With these two examples, it’s clear that microlearning is not a shiny new concept. These types of training materials have been present in workplaces for decades. 3. “Microlearning is chunked learning that leads to an overall end goal.” This common definition of microlearning can be very misleading. Microlearning is not a series of learning chunks; a microlearning event is a complete lesson from start to finish. While multiple microlearning events may work in conjunction with each other to help build one’s knowledge, each training lesson fulfills a single, focused and complete objective. 4. “Microlearning is needed now more than ever because millennial workers have shorter attention spans and have a heavy reliance on technology.” Unfortunately, too often, microlearning has been justified solely upon the myth that millennials are unable to focus for a long time and are addicted to technology. The myth of the short attention span—often equated to that of a gold fish—has been regularly disproven. The reality is its not “millennials” who are addicted to technology or have short attention spans—many people across all age groups fall into these behaviours. Furthermore, the need for microlearning because of technology is a false correlation. As mentioned above, microlearning events can exist with and without technology; they are not inherently tied together. Similarly, traditional learning can also exist both with and without technology. At the end of the day, microlearning is simply another way to deliver training and should be included in any good learning program if possible. It should follow all the same tenets and principles of instructional design, meaning if you are going to include microlearning in a learning program, it should have the learner as the centric focus of the event. It still requires the same rigor in its planning and development to achieve successful knowledge transfer. So, when should microlearning be used or not used? There are situations where microlearning and traditional learning differ in their benefits. Transactions or activities that have lengthy or complicated processes aren’t well suited to microlearning. For example, in the case of ERP implementations where the whole organization is impacted and much of the learning is end-to-end process focused, you need to consider that what you are teaching is not going to be accomplished in a one-shot event. You really need a holistic view of how all the changes knit together and connect to each other and therefore require multiple training sessions or follow-on training. There are exceptions such as Purchase Order or Service Order Approvals where the transaction is 3-6 steps and is a complete activity—perfect for microlearning. But in many enterprise solution transactions, the user must know how all the puzzle pieces fit together, making traditional, multi-part learning more effective. While microlearning may be the latest trend, it is important to understand that it’s just another form of learning that can be developed and deployed with the same overall principles. Whether it is used to quickly learn a new skill in your personal life, or a quick training for those simple but complete tasks at work you only do occasionally, microlearning can be an effective method of learning when designed correctly. The author would like to express their gratitude to Gregory Roth and Krista Schaber-Chan for their expertise in developing this article.

Trick or Treat – Which do you prefer? Halloween, Hallowe’en, All Hallows’ Day, Day of the Dead, or Samhain.  Whatever you call it, for many of us in the West it is a day and evening for children (and some adults) to dress in costume and go to parties or collect proffered candy or other treats door-to-door. Growing up, this day was a personal favourite – even more than Christmas. The spooky and scary, the costumes and candy, and the celebration of harvest and the unofficial end to fall is what makes this time of year so special. As I thought about the upcoming holiday I started to remember some experiences during my career that could be considered Scary, Trick and even Treat. I figured if I had some great stories, my colleagues must too.  Here are a few of our most scary or sweet and sometimes just comical experiences as ERP/technology trainers and change professionals. The year was 1998.  I was in a small city in Northern Ontario to deliver SAP Navigation to a group of rail employees. Northern Ontario in February is cold. But for a few weeks that year there was a cold snap and of course that was when I was scheduled to go and deliver training. A native of Calgary, I was not unaccustomed to cold winter weather. But I was not quite prepared for what I would encounter. As is common for many of our colder northern Canadian locations, the temperatures might be frigid, but the sun almost always shines bright – a decent trade-off if you ask me. Upon arrival the pilot informed the passengers that the current temperature was minus 50 degrees Celsius – before windchill. Ugh. No problem, I was prepared with parka, boots, mittens, toque and thermal underwear. When checking into my hotel I was cheerfully informed that due to the cold the heating system was having some issues keeping up with demand, that all rooms have been provided additional blankets, and electric heaters were available by request – while quantities last. Ugh. No problem. It was late, I had thermal underwear and apparently extra blankets and I had to get up early the next day anyway to get to the client’s training site, so I just went straight to bed. Morning came. It was still dark outside, but the sky looked lovely and clear– it was going to be a beautiful day. Or not…  No hot water – no, correction, no water. The person at the front desk informed me that due to the cold weather all the plumbing was frozen with no specific time for when it would be running again. Ugh. I got ready as best I could. Bottled water to the rescue, and my toque was just going to stay on all day. Arriving at the training site I realized my day was not going to improve. Not only did the client’s building not have running water there was no electricity either. I inquired about training delivery.  Surely, they would want to postpone? No? Really? But I have no power, so no system. Do what I can? Really? Ugh. I had just enough battery power on my laptop to go through some slides (sans projector…) and thankfully I had brought all the printed participant materials with me (remember, it was 1998 – that’s just what we did back then!). Plus, the guys in my class didn’t really want to go back out to the rail yard. While it was cold in the training room, the outdoors was a lot colder. What could I do? One guy suggested (jokingly, I think) that I use the whiteboard and draw the screens for them. Brilliant! I had a volunteer go find me some dry-erase markers. Armed with a huge whiteboard, beautiful natural sunlight streaming in through the window and four coloured markers I did just that – SAP Navigation demonstrated via whiteboard. In 2013, Greg Roth (my business partner and Harbinger co-founder) was working in Churchill, Manitoba delivering training for the new e-Health system. Greg is an amazing trainer.  On top of being very knowledgeable, he is super engaging; he could read passages from the phone book and people would find it fascinating! So, what happened next was very odd. Greg had his back to the room of participants pointing to and describing some key fields that were projected on the screen. When he turned back around to engage with the participants what he saw was all their backs – all 15 participants were crowed at the window looking out. At first, he chuckled. He had to admit, the view of the Hudson’s Bay was breathtaking.  But he was surprised that all his participants had decided at that moment to take it in. When he asked what they were all looking at, expecting a comment about the beautiful bay, he was shocked to see the group part down the middle and point at the massive Polar Bear who had decided to come and check out the training through the window. Polar Bears are gorgeous, but you do not want to get close to one. The window just did not seem like adequate protection and this giant bear looked less interested in e-Health, and more interested the humans’ health. Eventually, the bear meandered away. Everyone was a little dazed, memorized and a bit scared – even Greg had no superpowers to get everyone to re-settle and continue training that day. Monem Ansari is a really good trainer and a bit of Jedi with his seeming mind tricks. “Monem, you’re such a D#%K!”, one participant exclaimed as she stood up from her chair and joined him at the front of the room. Needless to say, the entire room erupted into laughter. Monem had asked the room for a volunteer to come up and “drive,” screen on the projector through some tasks during a Microsoft Dynamics training delivery session. There were no takers and certainly, the woman with the expletives wasn’t too keen. So, he meandered through the first task, feigning ignorance and asking for help. This must have been pretty annoying for his fan, who knew more than she might have been admitting to herself. Monem barely had to say a word when she came up to the podium and navigated through 4 tasks she would undertake on a daily basis, all in a new system. The scene nearly came to close with a high-five, applause, and a side-hug. Right then, someone walked in the room and had to hear about when Monem was called a d#%k! More laughter ensued! Training delivery always runs the risk of some scary moments. Will the system work? Is the training data correct?  Is there enough training data?  Did the training environment get refreshed last night – aka – is there enough training data? But the Change Engagement or Change Management side of projects can also be scary at times. While there are many stories that come to mind there is one general situation that is sadly as common as a misspelled Trump tweet. Imagine, it’s Project kick-off. All the key stakeholder and project team members are in the meeting. Everyone is excited and engaged. The project sponsor goes through introductions; the Project Manager (clapping), the Solution Integrator team members (more clapping), the business SME’s (hooting, hollering and clapping), the Change and Learning team – aka the squishy sh*t… (giggles, awkward silence, laughter, no clapping…). Yep. squishy sh*t, lipstick on the pig, the fluffy soft stuff – we have heard and been called it all – definitely one of the scariest situations ever. After 20+ years as a training and change professional, I know I have heard, seen and experienced many spooky, scary, trick-or-treat work moments and honestly love it all. Happy Hallowe’en.

by Colin Carmona-Murphy Writing persuasive instructional design documentation is important in ensuring effective and efficient adult learning. Rhetoric, being the expressive style of writing that helps persuade and engage readers is one of the most important considerations when writing for adult learning. Today, it is often seen as a tool for politicians to spread their message without addressing real problems, as they use figures of speech to avoid providing meaningful content. However, rhetoric is fundamental to instructional design documentation as it helps readers engage at a greater level, as well as helping to increase comprehension and understanding. Rhetoric has four significant benefits pertaining to instructional design: Persuading users to change their current behaviours and tasks Informing learners of change, as it provides clarity and structure to what they are reading Expressing the need for change, and how the learner will benefit from the change Entertaining the learner, keeping their attention and creating an enjoyable and engaging experience Some rhetorical devices are crucial when writing training documentation; they help the writer express their points and create a document that’s easier to follow. My favourite, alliteration, is the occurrence of the same letter or sound at the beginning of adjacent or closely ordered words. An example being “Right-click to rearrange rows in the retained earnings form”, helps the reader recall phrases and concepts at a much higher rate than sentences without alliteration. Another commonly used rhetorical device is an analogy. Analogy’s create a link between something familiar to the reader, and the concept they are being taught. For example, the phrase “Long term memory is like a computer’s hard drive; short term memory is like it’s RAM” helps readers with different levels of knowledge on a concept to reach a shared understanding. In instructional design this is important as the reader will walk away with new knowledge and is more likely to retain this information. There are many other rhetorical devices, including Amplification, Enumeration, and Parallelism that can help with creating effective documentation. Rhetorical appeals are categories that help classify how rhetoric relates and affects the reader. The first category being Logos, appeals to the logical side of the reader, where facts and figures are cited, making the writer appear insightful and knowledgeable. This is an important category, as readers are inclined to have confidence in the writer when facts are presented. The second appeal is Pathos, which relates to emotions, and can be especially powerful when relating to the readers underlying values. The third rhetorical appeal is Ethos, relating to the credibility and qualifications of the writer to be speaking on the related topic. Understanding these rhetorical appeals helps in instructional design as documents can be crafted to their audiences, making them more effective and relatable. When used properly, rhetoric can be a powerful tool in an instructional design document. It can help training run smoothly, keep readers engaged, and increase reading comprehension. As writers it is important to understand the audience and write for their specific needs. At Harbinger, we understand the importance and power in the proper use of rhetoric and seek to apply the principles in all of our instructional design documentation.