This week I had the amazing opportunity to work with a team. A real team. A soccer team. A group of individuals that must work together to achieve a collective goal. I reference ‘real’ not to be hyperbolic, but because sports offer a window into what teamwork really can be. A truly collective effort. I say this, as compared to organizations that can function under the veil of ‘team’, but often times can achieve their goals with, or without the collective effort of everyone. M

Over the past several weeks I have written about communication best practices, including most of the concepts that we (Pathways Training & eLearning) focus on when facilitating customer service or similar training, or through our suite of eLearning courses. To wrap up this discussion, here is a summary of the key concepts we covered which for the most part, dealt with effective communication within your workplace. The goal of interpersonal communication is to establish conn

Last week I continued to write about communication and interpersonal skills, a topic that was triggered by a discussion I was having with our programmer manager regarding the applicants we were seeing that were applying for the numerous positions we have available at Pathways Training & eLearning. As I also mentioned last week, while “excellence in communication” is usually a hi-lite of most resumes we see, we do not always share the same understanding as to what this really

I mentioned last week that due to the continued growth at Pathways Training & eLearning, we have posted for multiple positions, including a posting for a programmer. Well you can now add instructional designers to that list, which means shortly we will be interviewing potential candidates to fill these exciting roles. As I also mentioned last week, while “excellence in communication” is usually a hi-lite of more resumes we see, we do not always share the same understanding

Due to the continued growth at Pathways Training & eLearning, we have posted for multiple positions, including a posting for a programmer. As such a colleague of mine has have spent the last few weeks reviewing resumes from the potential candidates, many of which include a wide variety of skills and experiences. In speaking about this with my colleague yesterday while we were on a video shoot, he did point out that, there is one skill that 100% of the resumes mention, even

Recently I was working with a client on developing process documentation and technical instructions regarding the launch of a new system they were going to be using as part of an onboarding course. Specifically, we were working on creating written instructions on how to access their new Learning Management System (developed by Pathways Training & eLearning of course) for several different teams within their organisation. Considering there were 4 different groups, all need

Last week I continued a discussion with part II on the importance of protecting your business’s privacy, with a focus on best practices for employees when using Email. This week I would like to conclude the discussion by offering some important tips around the use of common hardware seen in the workplace, and that is personal devices including a smartphone, tablet or laptop. As I mentioned last week, we take the protection of our customer’s privacy very seriously, so much s

Last week I started a discussion on the importance of protecting your business’s privacy, so this week I would like to offer a few tips that apply both to the organization and the individual employee. As I mentioned last week, we take the protection of our customer’s privacy very seriously, so much so that we have developed programs, both eLearning and instructor led, that cover all aspects of safeguarding customer privacy. So let’s get started by asking the question, what

Regardless of what your role within an organization is, we all have a responsibility to protect our customers’ privacy. The above statement may seem an odd way to open a blog, but I wanted to be sure the objective of this discussion is stated as clearly as possible, as I have discovered over my 25 years in training, that not everyone shares that same opinion. At Pathways Training and eLearning, we have seen a dramatic increase in the number of client’s asking for customized

While the year is still relatively young, I have been somewhat surprised by the frequency of requests the Pathways Training & eLearning team has received has to develop eLearning programs or facilitate in-class programs about excellence in communication, customer service and Social Media training for several of our valuable clients. As a result the team has already logged a significant amount of travel as we visit the offices and meet with our clients so we can gain a bette

Last week I introduced the first of a three-part discussion on complaint management, a topic that is covered in great detail through eLearning and instructor led programs we have developed and offer our customers. As mentioned last week, the focus of the training provides the learner coaching tips on how to manage difficult situations in the workplace. A customer will lodge a complaint when their expectations have not been met. As mentioned previously, these complaints may

At Pathways Training & eLearning we develop several programs, both for eLearning and instructor led training, that provide the learner coaching tips on how to manage difficult situations in the workplace. Along this vein, a new program we will be offering shortly and is currently in development, looks at complaint management. Specifically, what our customers generally complain about (how these issues arise) and how the customer care teams should not only address the issue,

I have mentioned on a few occasions that one of my duties at Pathways Training & eLearning is facilitating courses for our luxury automotive clients. Today I was co-facilitating a Brand Awareness course and had an interesting conversation with my co-facilitator at lunch. The focus of the conversation was around facilitation techniques which led to being asked what strategies I use to engage and excite the students, specifically at the beginning of a program. To answer this

This week the Pathways team will be running an all-day workshop for one of our luxury automotive clients. While the objective for the workshop is essentially to allow groups within their organization to attain greater insight as to what their peers are doing, and as well to ascertain how they can work together in a more cohesive manner…much of the discussions will be focused on communication excellence for leaders. In thinking about the discussions we are preparing to have w

These past few months I have spent most of my time split between developing eLearning storyboards and leading classroom training, both activities of which I enjoy very much. I mention this as my work efforts being divided between two of the most common elements of training is an interesting segue in to a question I was asked recently while working with a client on a storyboard built around privacy awareness, and that is… “How does one determine when to use eLearning versu

As I have stated on numerous occasions, one of the more common topics we at Pathways Training & eLearning are asked to train (through interactive eLearning modules) is Social Media. I have written in the past about the benefits, advantages and potential dangers of using Social Media, so this week I would like to keep things a bit lighter, and offer these fun and interesting facts, thanks to our friends at Statistics Canada. As I am sure we would all agree, one of the greate

One of the most common topics we are asked to address in training is Social Media awareness, which on the service seems reasonably straight forward, however as many of our clients have discovered…not all of their employees share this same understanding. By that I mean that while most of us are aware of the plentiful social media channels available to us to share our opinions, thoughts and life experiences, many still do not realize the impact, both good and bad, Social Media

This past week I facilitated a project management program for a group of 10 professionals from a wide variety of organisations. The focus of the course was applied project management skills for professional planners, however some of the discussion in the morning was focused on their (the participants) experiences in previous classes; specifically, those classes that did not do a thorough job in covering the stated objectives of the course due to what they perceived as poor f

This past week I facilitated a project management program for a group of 10 professionals from a wide variety of organisations. The focus of the course was applied project management skills for professional planners, however some of the discussion in the morning was focused on their (the participants) experiences in previous classes; specifically, those classes that did not do a thorough job in covering the stated objectives of the course due to what they perceived as poor f

Over the next few weeks I will be facilitating two of the popular programs offered by Pathways Training & eLearning which are Introduction to Project Management and Applied Project Management. The intent of these courses is to provide professional planners with the basic knowledge and skills in managing various sized projects in all areas of urban and rural community development, urban design, environment, transportation, health and social services, housing, and economic deve