Continue reading »]]> It is a bit of a joke in Corporate America that if you are in danger of not meeting your goals, it is time to re-organize the department.  I guess it is not REALLY a joke since it actually does happen….often.

With mid-year coming up on us quickly, let’s examine a few things.

• Does it ALWAYS make sense to stick with a goal?  Have a look at the goals you set at the beginning of this year.  Are they still applicable?  Why or Why Not?  A lot has changed since December.  Maybe you seriously UNDERESTIMATED and you should push your goal numbers upward.
• What goals have you set that are not even on the RADAR anymore because of new business priorities?
• What goals have you already crossed off your list?

Anything worth planning is worth tracking….and anything worth tracking is worth revising.

Continue reading »]]> The Q4 issue of the ILTA magazine Peer to Peer went live this week.  The theme is Training/Learning in the legal market.  I was featured on a round table discussion called In the Perfect World.  The article was compiled from a series of podcasts that will be featured on ILTA’s website.

There’s a lot of good stuff throughout the magazine, with contributions from many SLLP friends.  I encourage you to spend some time with the whole issue.

What are some trends in training/learning law firms you see? What technologies and strategies should grab our attention?

Continue reading »]]> I came into work the other morning talking about my “shower epiphany”.  Needless to say, I got some pretty funny looks from my co-workers.  After I explained myself a little better, the looks got less strange but I think they were still a little shell-shocked over the TMI.

Let me explain myself.  I tend to “wake up” in the shower.  I am NOT a morning person and caffeine can only do so much for me.  I need extra hot water and the smell of Irish Spring to really get moving.  Somewhere between “shampoo time” and “shave time” is when most of my great ideas come to me.  This particular morning was a real doozy. Of course, I can’t share WHAT the idea was because it will earn me my first Nobel Prize for Training Software (they have that right?).  The point is that I know where to be when I need to be creative.

So, where do YOU come up with YOUR best ideas?

Continue reading »]]> Do you look forward to getting a new piece of software?  Do you panic at the thought of having to “re-learn” everything and possibly redesign all your current business practices?

Being the geek that I am, I always relish cracking the shrink-wrap on a new application…although I must admit some sadness these days now that many apps are downloadable.  It kinda takes away from the “new software smell”….but I digress.  The thrill of launching an app for the first time and seeing the shiny new UI is legendary.  Of course, this is followed by the ultimate realization that all the joy I am feeling is going to be manifested as sheer panic in most users.  Thoughts like “how am I going to explain this feature?” start rushing through my mind.  In the end, all will be well but….it really “harshes my bliss”.

What about you?  Sound off!

Continue reading »]]> A few months ago, HTML5 advocates trumpeted the death of Flash.  These were not small time players (Apple and Microsoft).  As an eLearning geek, I lean pretty heavily on the “ubiquitous” Flash Platform to deliver content for me.  We have Adobe Captivate in all our training content developer’s hands to get eLearning material in a format that our LCMS can track.

I have been working in HTML5 for a while now, sifting through the “not yet solidified” standards, and looking to see how it will benefit my work.  We have all been working in HD video for a while now and H.264 seems to do it better than most at a usable file size.  I have long been a fan of the H.264 standard for video so I am rooting for HTML5.  It also appears that Sharepoint2010 seems to be pretty friendly toward H.264 video….So I got that goin’ for me, which is nice.  (#Carl Spackler)

HTML5 seems to be a great plus for those of us considering mLearning on platforms like the iPad and other Tablets coming in the near future.  This is obviously a little more “long-term” goal but….certainly on my list of things to watch.

For me, HTML5 has progressed to a point where I am going to make sure I keep working in it.  I think it is certainly a viable enough technology that it will be a player at some point, just not today.  So, do you care yet?  Is HTML5 anything or are you taking a wait and see approach?

Continue reading »]]> In many professions, you will be assigned (or naturally migrate to) a mentor to help you find the ropes.  In college, I had a few professors who made HUGE differences in the way I approached my work.  They were visionaries (at least I remember them that way).  Since moving into the world of Computer-Based Training back in the early 1990s, I have had the opportunity to work with some very bright people.  They are all very talented and have great ideas BUT….I tend to pull inspiration from people whose expertise is outside of the legal education vertical.  Often times I will look to Guy Kawasaki (for out of the box thinking) or even Steve Jobs (how to make people NEED something BEFORE they know what it is)…although I admit to stopping short of wearing the black turtleneck.

How important is having a mentor in YOUR field?  Who do YOU look to for inspiration and advice when it comes to training in the legal vertical?  Here is a great place to give them PROPS.  Include links if they publish online.   I would love to hear your thoughts.

.tom

Continue reading »]]> Not that we are delusional enough to believe that anything we say here would, or should, be quoted….BUT, just in case we say something here that makes you want to tell the world, we have added an easy way to hit Twitter or Facebook right from the post.

Simply click the “Tweet This Post” or “Facebook” link and share us with the world!

.tom

Continue reading »]]> I have been testing Captivate 5 for a while now. Basically, being the good geek I am, I wanted to get out in front of our Training Group and ensure that all was well. It is more than well….it is AWESOME.

Recently, we hit a good jumping off point in our development process and we decided to roll it to the rest of the team. The first hint that the team was going to love it occurred when Tony (you know Tony….) was editing a very long presentation that was narrated by one of our HR people. He had just come off of an editing session on a previous, similar presentation in Captivate 4 and spent a great deal of time cleaning up audio (mouth noises, gasps, popped P sounds, etc). In 5, the built in noise reduction saved him HOURS of work.

There will be many more stories to come but….just wanted to tease it here. Stay tuned.

.tom

Continue reading »]]> …And we’re back.

For those of you that know us, you’ll understand the absence. For those that don’t, all I can say is that sometimes life is like sled dogging. Unless you’re the lead dog, the view never changes.

So you either vie to become the lead dog, or hope that the lead dog is worth looking at, or get a new lead dog.

I’ve got lots to say, but for now I’ll leave it with this: we’re still here, we still care about the legal learning world, and you’ll be hearing more from us.

Tony Hartsfield

Continue reading »]]> The annual conference for ILTA has begun. I’ve seen two sessions so far.

The first was Greening the Law Office: Why It Makes Cents, presented by Joan Krajewski of Microsoft. Joan had some interesting statistics regarding the costs of business behaviors, and ways to reduce the corporate carbon footprint. Her slides (pdf) have some good resource material for your green initiatives.

On a much different note was Blogs: A Discussion of Current Trends, Benefits and Pitfalls. Panelists brought opposing views (polar opposite on some points), but the end result was a lively, divergent conversation from some leaders in the legal blogosphere.

Today’s keynote by Tom Koulopoulos was also quite interesting. My favorite line dealt with innovators and their target audience. “Ask them what they want, and they will only tell you about what they have.” Innovators create products that people didn’t know they needed. Going to have to mull over that one for awhile, but I think there’s application for legal learning professionals.

The User Support Peer Group track is Tuesday. I’m particularly looking forward to the afternoon sessions: Training on the Cheap, and Engaging Your Audience: Creating Persuasive Training and Presentations.

Continue reading »]]> A colleage referred me to a recent article in CFO Magazine titled, Live and Learn – Companies get better at using technology to use training dollars more efficiently.

The short article highlights that while training budgets are decreasing in most businesses, learning opportunities do not have to be sacrificed. In fact, because online content development has gotten cheaper to produce in recent years, your firm can get a bigger bang for your training buck.

Content developers have to work smarter though, targeting specific user needs instead of generalized instruction.

Good Stuff.

Continue reading »]]> This isn’t related to legal learning, but there’s an important lesson here.

Last week I joined a team from my office to migrate one of our remote offices to new systems.  As we left the restaurant after dinner one night, a team member noticed that her Blackberry was missing. “I just had it at the table,” she said as returned to retrieve it.  She didn’t find it. It was already gone.  So she contacted her provider to suspend service.

She called the restaurant a little later, and sure enough, someone had turned in her Blackberry.

When she picked it up, she noticed that someone had attempted to use it, but since it was password protected, they couldn’t and left it.

My colleague wisely set a password on her Blackberry, and that probably assisted her in retrieving it.  At the very least, it kept an unwanted party from accessing her firm email account, plus all of her personal information.

So here’s the lesson: password protect your handheld devices.  Our firm requires a login for any access to it’s resources — I’ll bet your firm does, too — but not for handhelds.  We allow firm personell to carry a device that can be easily lost or stolen.  All the “finder” has to do is turn the device on, and access your firm email.

Does your firm require passwords for handheld devices?

Continue reading »]]> Whether or not your firm is an ILTA member, you really should take advantage of the materials they offer. Of particular value are the webinar recordings.  You’ll find them on the archives page of their site.

I’ll highlight a couple of recent recordings.  First, Jenn Steele presented on ILTA Social Networking: Twitter & Facebook & Blog.  It’s a great overview of social networking tools used by legal professionals.  Jenn has a great easy-going style, but is a sharp, insightful presence in our field.  Check out her blog, Leading Geeks.

The second is a webinar that I presented, E-Learning Creation with Adobe Captivate. If your firm is still on the fence elearning initiatives, this webinar is an introductions to the basics of recording online content.  Other than the shameless self promotion, that’s not why I mention my webinar. Instead, I want to highlight one of the points I made early in the presentation. It’s a recurring theme in SLLP posts, but it’s still the most important for legal learning professionals.

Here it is: It’s the content, stupid.

It doesn’t matter how “cool” your technology is, or the delivery mechanism. Bells and whistles, dog and pony, anything “shiny” is secondary to the content you are presenting. You must always start with WHAT you are going to say before you get to HOW you’re going to say it.

Enjoy the webinar recordings. And thanks to ILTA for sharing these resources.

Continue reading »]]> ILTA’s latest issue of Peer to Peer Magazine is out (and online). The issue theme is Green Initiatives, and includes a great article called The New Classroom, written by Gina Buser of Traveling Coaches.

Gina reiterates what we’ve said here as well, that good training product is already green. 

“One option is to create a ‘Green Learning Plan’ – online, of course – with content on how to modify print options for draft printing, steps for double-sided printing, how to create digital documents, advanced search techniques to more easily find documents digitally and remote-access skills for efficient telecommuting.”

She also has tips for for responsible resource use while in the traditional classroom setting.  Definitely worth a read.

Continue reading »]]> SLLP’s very own Tony Hartsfield, Char LaMaire, and Donna Payne all appeared in the survey and white paper from the ILTA User Support Peer Group.  There’s a few things to ponder, but for now, go read them.  Tony’s article on alternative learning strategies is on page 5 of the white paper, by the way.  You can find Donna on page 11 and Char on page 18.  That’s right kids….half of the articles are written by SLLP members.

User Support 2008 Survey

User Support White Paper: Beyond the Classroom

Continue reading »]]> Ted Banks, former chief counsel for global compliance at Kraft Foods, vented his spleen in a recent Law.com article, What Steams Me About Technology. I like to hear what lawyers think about legal IT.  I don’t know Mr. Banks, but I hear echoes of his pet peeves in comments by other lawyers in my environment.

Below I’ll review his list, and as a trainer, grade them.

• “First, why do so many IT folks focus on the software itself, instead of the task it should accomplish?”

Mr. Banks starts with a good one. IT sometimes forgets that what they do needs to be useful outside of our cubes. We support a community that is using technology to perform non-technical tasks.  Even trainers, who are supposed to be advocates for users, can get lost in the features of the software. We want to show them everything, and every way to use everything, instead of focusing on what they need and how they can best do it.

Grade:  B.  The reason this doesn’t get an A is that sometimes lawyers don’t know what they truly “need,” or make decisions based upon bad habits. IT folks may have insights into helping them accomplish tasks more effectively or efficiently, but many lawyers are not interested in exploring those avenues. It’s not enough to focus on the task that needs to be done today.  Some time has to be spent on how can the task be done better the next time.

• “Anything that takes power away from individual users and moves it elsewhere is horrible.”

Mr. Banks is ranting against cloud computing.  He doesn’t like the lack of local control in an Enterprise 2.0 world.  He then dismisses “debates about reliability and security” as if those subjects are inconsequential.

Grade:  C (and I’m probably being kind here).  Unreliable and insecure are risky, costly business behaviors.  They can ruin careers and bankrupt firms.  IT folks harp on these subjects because they are, in fact, important.  I once heard from a lawyer (in a weaker moment, apparently) that his profession likes to talk about security, but isn’t interested in doing anything about it until it hurts them. It’s why the message of E-discovery is so difficult to convey to law firms prior to a damaging suit against them.

In the same way that we should focus support on the lawyer’s tasks, lawyers should attempt to align themselves with the core “tasks” of IT.

• “Successful technology works when it mimics how people think and behave”

This was probably part of the previous pet peeve, but I think it stands on its own.  I love when technology is intuitive, seamless, magical.  Users should not have to be programmers to do their jobs.

Grade:  A.  But bear in mind that magical does not mean effortless.  IT can’t remove all the burden of performing tasks.

• “I also hate that legal technology tends to move in fads.”

IT does seem to suffer from ADD, but it’s not always their fault.  Lots if IT initiatives take place because lawyers see a shiny new toy (iPhones) and assume that it has an immediate use in the office.  Mr. Banks rightly encourages appropriate due diligence before jumping into a fad, but I’m not sure who he thinks should perform it.

Grade:  Incomplete.  I think there’s enough blame to share by lawyers and IT on this one.

When Mr. Banks is finished with his pet peeves, he highlights the root problem:

• “When we get bad products or services, often it is because we cannot communicate what we need.”

Lawyers can’t ignore technology.  Legal IT folks don’t have jobs without lawyers.  It only makes sense that we communicate with each other on what defines success for the firm.

Overall Grade:  B.

Continue reading »]]> I joined the Twitter ranks last summer.  The micro-blog site experienced explosive growth in 2008, which continues today.

As a legal learning professional, I’ve discovered colleagues in my field, as well as several other legal experts who inform me about the industry.  Do they all relate to my training role? No, but they help me understand some of the people that I provide training to.

And I’ll be honest, it’s fun. My teammates tease me about “emphatically twittering,” but I think they’re just jealous.

Some of the people I follow on Twitter have hundreds, thousands of followers, while I have a few dozen. Some that I follow are huge influencers.  Some Twitter as a marketing tool for their services or products.  In 140 characters, they can present ideas and opportunities to a previously unreached audience.

But I’m not a marketer.  I don’t need to sell where I work to the world. That responsibility belongs to others in my firm. If required to, I could walk away from Twitter and my job would not change. So for me, it’s an added benefit to network with the larger legal industry, learn a few things, and hopefully, provide some of my own insights that might help others.

In other words, it’s a micro version of what we try to do here at the SLLP.

Do you tweet? Feel free to connect with me there. twitter.com/tlhartsfield

Continue reading »]]> A partner called, asking for assistance setting up a web conference with a client.  It was Thursday, and his meeting was the next Tuesday.  I know what you’re thinking: A partner called 4 business days before a meeting to set it up? Really?

But it’s true, and we commended him for his foresight.

And it turns out we needed those days to work out the details for the web conference.  What computer or laptop will we use in the conference room? Does it have the hosting software installed? Does the partner know his account info for setting up and hosting the meeting?  Are there any issues with internet access in the conference room?

I’ll lessen the drama by stating that meeting went without a hitch, but not without some trouble-shooting beforehand.  The story could have been ugly had the partner requested assistance an hour before the event.

So what are the lessons from the experience?

• We need to get the message out to our lawyers to notify IT support as far in advance as possible to insure the best results.
• IT support people need to anticipate issues common to lawyers’ use of technology.  The best technology is seamless – “magic” – to the end user.  In many cases, we can make the magic happen when we focus more on customer service (anticipate the need) than support (step in when something breaks).

Continue reading »]]> I had the privilege of presenting in webinar form one of the sessions I gave at the International Legal Technology Association (ILTA) conference last August. This session was in the Professional Development track.

I was a little worried about how it would translate from an interactive, live presentation to a unidirectional web format, but the reviews were good.

I offered tips on career growth, using the analogy of a start up company. The outline was based upon Guy Kawasaki‘s book, The Art of the Start.

Given the current economic environment, I couldn’t talk about career growth with out acknowledging the elephant in the living room.  However, the strategies of building a network, improving your skills, and documenting your processes for your current position are important factors in staying employed.

The recording is now available on ILTA’s website:

Career 2.0 SP1: Taking Your Career to the Next Level