Personal Development Plan

Personal Development Plan

In order to properly prepare for my professional growth and the general future in in my field of choice I have carefully analyzed the things that I have done, currently do and will eventually have to do in order to progress within my organization. The following items that I have determined are the most important are as follows:

Goal Setting

Goal setting may be one of the most under estimated components of professional development. There are those that do not see the value in creating a concrete goal sheet in order to visualize professional goals and the road map necessary to achieve those goals. In creating this goal progression map I will be able to not only set a definitive path towards my professional goals, but determine a strategic plan that includes variables such as time constraints, cost and check points, so as not to end up on a path with an indefinite time limit.

Job Rotation

At my place of employment, people are relegated to performing the same duties repeatedly, until someone either moves on or fails to perform a given task to satisfaction. For example, professional development sessions are facilitated by a handful of people that are rotated at random; other employees rarely receive the opportunity to facilitate or present to the staff. I propose to upper management that a staff wide survey should be administered in order to determine who is interested in facilitation opportunities, so that a proper rotation schedule can be created. This will give willing staff members, such as myself, the opportunity to present to the staff as well as facilitate professional learning sessions.
Formal Education

My company does not offer formal education programs nor do they offer tuition reimbursement, be it partial or full. Employees are constantly encouraged, sometime pressured to earn higher education degrees and certificates, while offering little in the way of incentive beyond a modest pay increase. I propose to management that professional learning opportunities be provided through the use of grant funding. Our company hires professional grant writers in order to secure funding for activities and needs that fall outside of the yearly budget, but none of the funding is used to invest in employees. There are multiple field certification courses that can be completed in in a relatively short time for a small amount of funding.

Outside Development

I have always been the type of person that does not wait for my employer to invest in my future. I completed a second M.S. program in October of 2013 and I am a week away from completing a post graduate certification I my field. Upon completion of this certificate I will be enrolling in an Adobe Captivate boot camp course in April, followed by an Articulate Storyline course in July. These two courses will provide the physical course offering experience that was sorely lacking from my M.S. ID program. Once I have completed those I will enroll in online Adobe Cloud courses in order to hone my skills in graphic arts, video editing and sound design; the skillset portfolio that I am building will lead to quicker progression in the field of instructional design. In 2015 I will begin courses for my Master Trainer certification, which will lead directly into earning my ASTD CPLP certification.

High-Tech Training Digital Collaboration

The advances in digital collaboration over the past decade has literally changed the landscape of training and development. Just a few short years ago digital collaboration had another name: email. People would read email and speak on the phone in order to make communication more effective. The advances in business communication, and as a result collaboration, have opened new doors into how employee training and assessment are performed. Employees can share content, hold discussions and communicate with facilitators remotely (Noe, 2013) through means such as electronic chat rooms, message boards, VOIP (http://www.voipreview.org/?s=GAD&gclid=CPzEvri1yLwCFaLm7Aodf0QAgA) and video; programs such as Google Docs (http://www.google.com/drive/apps.html), Dropbox and Skydrive enable the immediate sharing of documents, some even allowing for real time editing amongst multiple users. Digital collaboration will not replace face-to-face collaboration, but it will make collaboration between individuals in different locations easier, more cost efficient and time efficient.

Smartphones 

Smartphones have made workplace communication, training and development truly mobile. As smartphones are now as powerful as desktop computers, businesses have the ability to train employees

synchronously or asynchronously virtually anywhere. Some may argue that laptops have already filled this need, but smartphones have multiple advantages. While portable, most laptops are still cumbersome when not sitting stationary at a desk; also people always have their smartphones with them and accessible. Not only can training materials be downloaded on smartphones, but trainees can communicate through video or voice with each other or facilitators remotely. As far as the future of smartphone use for training, I believe that smartphones will take on more of a supplemental role. The IBM study that was provided in our readings this week illustrated that smartphone users do not want copious amounts of training content on their mobile phone, but do want information and support (Ahmad & Orton, 2010). I believe companies will continue to develop more effective ways of incorporating smartphones as a training accessory as opposed to a center piece.

Asynchronous Communication 

Walden University is an excellent example of how asynchronous communication can be used in training. Digital communication gives businesses the means to not only share documents, video and audio instantaneously, but also the means to store these items for subsequent access by others. One of the shortcomings of corporate training is that it generally requires employees to stop working, which affects productivity. As companies continue to upgrade their technology they will be able to provide employee trainings that are able to be accessed remotely, adding the convenience of 24 hour access and self-pacing.

Virtual Reality 

Virtual reality has been a fixation of Hollywood for many years. Even the video game company Nintendo attempted to create a virtual reality headset 20 years ago; it ended up causing headaches and seizures and was promptly abandoned. If perfected, virtual reality would be an invaluable training tool, in that employees could be placed in hyper realistic scenarios that replicate real world situations without putting people, data or equipment in harm’s way. Image a police raid simulation where no equipment or ammo is used; this is not only safe but cost effective. I believe that once virtual reality simulators become mass market, they will be employed in many training modules used by companies. Fortunately, significant strides in the manipulation of virtual environments, ironically enough, thanks to video game developers. A small development company has created the Oculus Rift (http://www.oculusvr.com/) which is a VR headset that also has a walking station, which together provide realistic virtual world where one can interact with objects as they would in the real world.

Social Media

The rise of social media as an educational platform has been slow and faces a lot of resistance. Many companies fear that using social media as a learning tool will have a negative effect on employee productivity; this is most likely due the stigma that comes with the word “social” within the workplace. Fortunately there are some intelligent people that realized how social media could be used to enhanced workplace development by presenting learning in a familiar package. Some companies have gone as far as to create their own proprietary social network just for their workplace. The focus of social media in the workplace is on communication, community, creativity, convergence and collaboration (Friedman & Friedman, 2013). I believe that social media will lead to a more light-hearted approach to workplace training in which employees are encouraged to communicate more frequently and have more fun while doing it. Social media will be used to bridge gaps between management and employees, making training less formal while used to build workplace relationships.  

References
Ahmad, N., & Orton, P. (2010). Smartphones make IBM smarter, but not as expected. Training and Development, 64(1), 46–50. Retrieved from the Academic Search Complete database

Friedman, L. & Friedman, H. (2013). Using Social Media Technologies to Enhance Online Learning. Journal of Educators Online, v10 n1 Jan 2013, 22 pp. Retrieved from http://web.a.ebscohost.com.ezp.waldenulibrary.org/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=b5db5da3-bcbb-4f4d-ac78-47868bbad58a%40sessionmgr4005&vid=9&hid=4101

Noe, R. A. (2013). Employee training and development (6th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw Hill

Planning for a Needs Assessment: Nokia Handset Division

The company that I have chosen to plan a needs assessment for is Nokia (handset division). Two years ago, Nokia entered into a semi-exclusive licensing agreement with Microsoft to use their Windows Phone 8 software for their smartphones. Microsoft is now on the verge of acquiring the handset division, despite its struggle to gain significant market share (particularly in North America). In preparing to perform a needs assessment on Nokia (Phone Division), I would address the following: Stakeholders: Since entering its semi-exclusive Windows Phone 8 licensing deal with Microsoft, Nokia has failed to make a significant dent in smart phone market share. I would use surveys to address Nokia customers, customers of rivals and potential customers as well in order to determine overall sentiment towards Nokia phones, attempting to ascertain both perceived strengths and weaknesses of company handsets. I would also attempt to meet with the CEO’s, marketing leads and sales leads for both companies.

Questions: Consumers- Questioning would focus on reasons for purchasing or not purchasing Nokia products, customer satisfaction oriented questions and subjective improvement-based queries Executives- Questioning would focus on goals (past, present and future); I would ask about marketing strategies for mobile projects, including partnerships and budget. I would also need to know about tactics that have been effective and both ineffective in order to tweak and adjust strategic plans. Documents/Records: Here I would need to analyze financial records including sales, costs for marketing, R&D, labor, training/development and partnerships. I would also need to see any other marketing feedback data that the company has gathered in order to disaggregate and analyze the data. Also, I would want to see the breakdown in sales between various phone models in order to determine consumer preference. Methods: The methods to be employed in this analysis would include, but not be limited to Questionnaires, interviews, focus groups and archival historical data I believe that Nokia would benefit greatly from a needs assessment. The company has spent an enormous amount of capital pushing, what by most accounts, is a more than competent and desirable product; for one reason or another, critical success is not translating into sales success. Does the problem reside with the marketing department? Retail partners? As previously stated, Nokia handsets receive great critical reviews, so the problem seemingly is not the issue. A needs analysis can determine whether or not the sales gap is due to human performance or poor system design.

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