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As the chief evangelist at Kollective, Mike determines how customers are using Kollective to solve business challenges, and uses that information to evolve the product strategy. Mike has more than 15 years of experience working with Fortune 500 clients to solve their communication, training, and video challenges.

Mike Merit

Most customer-facing employees are usually based far away from your company’s senior leadership or strategists, yet by definition, these employees are the face of your brand. A new product, service, or brand initiative is only as effective as its delivery to the customer. In this webinar, we’ll explore how leading retail, financial, and hospitality organizations are leveraging video to train frontline employees to deliver a consistent message and great customer experiences.
Attendees will learn:

best practices and examples of how leading companies are training frontline employees
how to use video to communicate quickly and effectively
how to implement a program and measure results.
 


Using Video to Train Employees on Great Customer Service

Mike is the senior director of education and career training for the Institute for Veterans and Military Families (IVMF). He is a native of central New York and enlisted in the army in 1987 as an infantryman; he was assigned to the 187th Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne, Fort Campbell, Kentucky. He also served as a squad leader, B Company 130th Infantry Regiment, Illinois National Guard. In June 2011, Mike took command of the Saint Bonaventure Army ROTC program in Western New York, and in 2013 he transitioned to Syracuse University as the professor of military science, until retiring in 2015 following 28 years of service. His awards and decorations include a Bronze Star and the Meritorious Service Medal, Army Commendation Medal, Army Achievement Medal, Army Good Conduct Medal, National Defense Service Medal With Bronze Star, Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal, Afghan Campaign Medal With Bronze Star, Armed Forces Service Medal With Bronze Star, Military Outstanding Volunteer Service Medal, Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, Armed Forces Reserve Medal, Overseas Service Ribbon, NATO Medal With Bronze Star, Army Aviator Wings, Combat Action Badge, Airborne Wings, Air Assault Wings, and Thai Royal Military Parachutist Badge. Mike has a master of business administration from Webster University.

Michael Bianchi

Michael Dalmaridis is the manager of learning and development at Meridian Credit Union in Toronto. He is an ATD Master Trainer and ATD Master Instructional Designer. He also has a BEd in adult education and a master of education in workplace learning and change.  Learning is more than a job to Michael. He’s passionate about learning in all aspects of his personal and professional life. He believes in providing learning solutions that adhere to best practices and is an advocate for an individual’s potential. He loves to share his knowledge—sometimes unsolicited to complete strangers.

Mike Dalmaridis

Are your compliance training programs strategic and aligned to business, or simply an obligatory duty with a check-the-box mentality?
When compliance is not integrated into your business system and culture, the outcomes are clear. Consequences include risk of legal action, significant costs in penalties, damage to brand reputation, and more. However, companies where compliance is a key component of their culture and that have fully integrated compliance management into their business systems not only perform better, but easily attract and retain talent. Achieving this integration can present a challenge—what is the best process to ensure compliance represents a strategic value to your organization?
To support you on this journey, Skillsoft has developed a road map, The Skillsoft Compliance Maturity Model, to make sure the route to your destination is clearly defined.
This webcast will demonstrate this framework and provide you with the information needed to establish your own integration. You will learn:

the risks presented by compliance programs based on a checkbox mentality
the merits of integrating compliance with business systems and culture
the steps to take to begin and maintain your compliance journey.
 


Connecting Compliance to Business Strategy

 Selling an innovative solution to your customer is powerful. New solutions differentiate you from your competitors and solve the customer’s core challenges—not just surface-level effects. But even after you’ve sold the solution, one large hurdle remains: getting organizational buy-in. Ultimately, the organization has to accept your changes, or the solution will be rejected. Here are some strategies that can help achieve by-in. Co-Develop the Solution If you’ve co-developed your solution with the customer, you’ve certainly shared the range of idea components throughout the process. There’s little room for surprise in something they’ve co-developed, so the chance of rejection drops considerably. In the absence of shock value, the customer can evaluate the idea on its own merits instead of being distracted by how different it may be.  Get Buy-In at the Highest Level Even if you’ve co-developed the solution, your customer probably has a boss. Depending on your industry and sales process, getting final approval can be tenuous and surprising. “If you don't get that kind of support and buy-in at the highest level, you’re not going to be successful,” says Tracy Tolbert, executive vice president of global sales at Xerox. “I’ve seen a handful of deals in my career that you think you have the support you need, but when your sponsor takes it up to the top for the final approval (the final signature of the CEO or even the board), it turns out you did not have the support there that you thought you had. And you’ve spent a lot of time and energy. I’ve seen a lot of naive salespeople who think they have the buy-in from the buyer, but the reality is the buyer didn't have permission to buy. That’s the challenge,” Tolbert explains. Account for Change Management Don’t underestimate the toll a potentially large change might have on the decision to implement the solution, advises Tolbert. “The solutions that we provide are typically big and they’re changing the internal workings of an organization. We can show great value, we can show great savings, we can show increased delivery, response times, and all of the things that we measure, and a client can still just say, ‘You know what, we can’t do it.’” Listen to the End User At this stage, it’s also important to do customer or end-user testing, to get their perspectives. As you commit to a solution, you have to make sure it will align with what the customer will need.

4 Strategies for Getting Customer Buy-In

Procrastination is probably on most managers’ “Seven Deadly Sins” lists. But don’t be too quick to assign the moniker of “procrastinator.” According to personality type theory, as described by the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® (MBTI®) instrument, certain work style and cognitive preferences, which look an awful lot like procrastination on the surface, indicate anything but laziness.The MBTI instrument categorizes personality type along four categories, including Judging/Perceiving, which describes how people make decisions. Those with preferences for Judging (J)—whose work style dominates the corporate world currently—tend to make decisions quickly, and work more efficiently and are more energized at the beginning of a project. Conversely, those who prefer Perceiving (P) tend to make decisions later, and work more efficiently and are more energized toward the end of a project. It’s easy to see how an outsider, who can’t see what’s going on “under the hood,” might easily dismiss this tendency as procrastination, which usually entails delaying something because you simply don’t want to deal with it. However, for someone with a preference for Perceiving, quite the opposite is occurring. Instead, these workers are likely taking more time to gather all the information possible in order to make the most-informed decision. While those preferring J feel unsettled waiting to commit to a course of action and like to do it early on, those preferring P feel unsettled if they close off options before they’ve fully vetted them. Both approaches are valid and offer unique benefits. But it doesn’t take much vision to understand why—in a business climate riddled with the consequences of rushed decisions—the P approach might provide balance to an “I need it yesterday” culture. Yet, this particular cognitive and behavioral orientation, while common in the population at large, is marginalized in business, education, and society—often from childhood. **You’re a Slacker, and So Was Your Old Man!(No McFly Will Amount to Anything!)** From early in life, those with a preference for P receive messages that negate the value of their natural approach—and praise when they make more immediate decisions. This carries on into college, where you’re expected to choose a major before you even crack open a textbook (never mind that many of tomorrow’s most critical jobs probably don’t even exist yet). In fact, you could say that P preferences are programmed to self-identify as procrastinators and, as a result, learn to fake the J approach to school and work. How many times have you heard someone joke about the fact that they procrastinate, but can’t help it because they work better at the last minute? If that person is successful, chances are low that they truly procrastinate. More likely, they prefer P but have stereotyped themselves, because of a negative perception of what a preference for Perceiving really entails. In organizations, we don’t like when people delay making decisions. It’s unnerving because the merits of this work style are not understood in our J-biased corporate work culture—and we can’t necessarily discern what’s going on inside a person’s head. We can’t see that they’re actually gathering facts and weighing options; we don’t know that this process is so important to them that they’re willing to take all of the time that they possibly can before committing to a course of action. Efficiency Kicks in at the Project’s End As the deadline approaches, however, P preferences will quickly commit to a course of action and become efficiency machines, operating just as efficiently as those that prefer J tend to at the beginning of a project. This isn’t necessarily because they perform any better under pressure than anyone else, but rather that they work more effectively if they’ve had time to assemble the puzzle pieces in their head. On the other hand, if they’re required to operate in a Judging-oriented manner, focusing on the production end at the beginning of a project, they tend to work less efficiently. To put it in laymen’s terms, they may “doddle” a bit. This has nothing to do with their work ethic—they simply haven’t had sufficient time to formulate what they want to produce. And they’ll often change courses midstream, because along the way they’ve discovered a better approach. The Pot of Gold at the End of the Rainbow Admittedly, for someone with a Judging-oriented outlook, the idea of allowing someone who prefers P to follow their natural work style within a modern business setting probably sounds like following a rainbow to its end in search of a pot of gold. However, in this case, there is a substantial pot of gold in terms of value to the organization. First, this approach provides a critical counter-balance to the J-driven propensity to make decisions and act on them quickly. To be sure, the Judging-oriented approach offers tremendous value, particularly in projects that require milestones. But sometimes decisions are made too soon—and organizations are locked into a course of action that turns out to be less desirable than one that materializes later. If both Judging and Perceiving perspectives are respected, however, teams can achieve ongoing, yet tempered momentum. Second, understand that those that prefer P really aren’t at their best when they have to conform to J-driven processes. If they’re allowed to operate within their natural work style, they produce higher quality work. To put it simply, you’re getting more value out of them by giving them the flexibility to do things their own way, and positioning them for greater career success by allowing them to make best use of their talents. Finding Common Ground We’ve established that P frequently conforms to a J world. But should it be the other way around? The reality is that it’s probably unrealistic—and perhaps equally unbeneficial—for either side to completely flex its behavior to the expectations of the other side. Those preferring Perceiving have to understand what things look like to a manager or co-worker with a J preference, and provide assurances that things are indeed progressing toward a desirable outcome. This may involve agreeing on certain markers that indicate progress. A Word to the Wise… If you prefer P, understand that when your J-preferring colleagues flex their own work preferences to your style, you’ve got to deliver the goods. If you don’t, you may not get another chance to prove the value of your approach. The good news: As you consistently deliver quality results, your J colleagues will become increasingly supportive of your work style.

Why You Might Want to Give Procrastinators a Chance

Agencies can use surveys like the FEVS to not only measure employee engagement, but also pinpoint areas for improvement.

The Business Case for Engagement

Mediation training teaches managers and healthcare professionals the skills they need to conduct a potentially confrontational conversation effectively.

Mediation Training Helps Healthcare Pros Resolve Conflict

Science supports the claim that well-being is a skill that can be learned. It only takes five minutes of practice a day to see sustained benefits, such as reduced stress and anxiety. This webinar will provide insights and tools to support your mental health to help you navigate the ups and downs of life at work and beyond.
Join Stephanie Wagner, well-being expert and meditation teacher at Healthy Minds Innovations, to learn how you can cultivate and measure well-being. With years of professional development experience, she partners with organizations to help them understand how to leverage their strengths and self-awareness to make positive, sustainable change in any dimension: physical, social, spiritual, professional, and emotional well-being.
During this webinar, you will learn how to:

Cultivate and measure well-being.
Leverage your strengths and self-awareness to make sustainable change to achieve well-being.
Practice well-being to reduce stress and anxiety.

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Primary Capability Covered: Emotional Intelligence and Decision Making
Attendance at this webinar may be eligible for professional development points for initial certification or recertification of your APTD or CPTD credential. See eligibility or recertification polices for details.

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