by Char LeMaire of Traveling Coaches, Inc.

When the beta of Office 2010 went public in the fall of 2009, Microsoft did something very different -- they blogged.  They explained what they were doing, and why.  For the first time, those of us trying to learn about the new product and technology didn't have to wait for reviews by a select few in the form of articles and white papers, or wait for a book to be written about how to use the technology.  Through their beta program (which was huge!), we could learn directly from the experts. More
 

This article was first published in ILTA’s December 2011 white paper titled "Tech Potpourri: Stirring Up Something Good" and is reprinted here with permission. For more information about ILTA, visit their website at www.iltanet.org

by Gina Buser of Traveling Coaches, Inc.

I started my legal career over 25 years ago in a small law firm through a co-op program in high school. That program taught me some valuable lessons that helped me successfully navigate a career inside law firms for nearly 10 years before co-founding Traveling Coaches in 1995. More
 

This article was first published in ILTA’s September 2011 issue of Peer to Peer titled “Professional Services: Tools of the Trade” and is reprinted here with permission. For more information about ILTA, visit their website at www.iltanet.org

by Char LeMaire and Brie Stampe of Traveling Coaches, Inc.

The successful law firm in the year 2020 has withstood a dramatic period of declining profits, increased competition, growth in outsourced legal services, headcount reductions, radically changing workflows and roles, Baby Boomer "brain drain," and a rapid culture shift as a new generation of media-savvy Millennials became lawyers and clients. More
 

This article was first published in ILTA’s June 2011 issue of Peer to Peer titled “Law 2020” and is reprinted here with permission. For more information about ILTA, visit their website at www.iltanet.org.

by Brie Stampe of Traveling Coaches, Inc.

Four months ago, I traded in my company iPhone for the brand new Windows Phone 7 on a leap of faith (with a 30-day return safety net). Our company’s mobile contract was up
for renewal, and each employee had a choice to make — iPhone or BlackBerry (Torch or Curve). More
 

This article was first published in ILTA’s March 2011 issue of Peer to Peer titled “Communications/Technologies” and is reprinted here with permission. For more information about ILTA, visit their website at www.iltanet.org.

by Brie Stampe and Tami Schiller of Traveling Coaches, Inc.

Welcome to Next Generation Learning in law firms. Learning Happens. It's inevitable. What's changing is how people learn and how professionals in the training industry need to reinvent and re-engineer formal and informal learning in law firms. More
 

This article was first published in ILTA’s December 2010 issue of Peer to Peer titled “Training/Learning” and is reprinted here with permission. For more information about ILTA, visit their website at www.iltanet.org.

The Wizardy of Leading Others and Yourself with Courage, Heart and Brains

by Gina Buser, Chief Executive Officer of Traveling Coaches, Inc.

In order to truly know ourselves, we must be willing to look in the mirror and accept who we are — our strengths and weaknesses, our successes and failures, our goals and shortcomings. More
 

This article was first published in ILTA’s September 2010 issue of Peer to Peer titled “Leadership” and is reprinted here with permission. For more information about ILTA, visit their website at www.iltanet.org.

Office 2010 and Windows 7 for Law Firms

by Charlene LeMaire and Brie Stampe of Traveling Coaches, Inc.

Documents are valuable firm assets and any decision to change the current technology tools used to create and manage those assets should be weighed carefully. In October 2009, Microsoft Office. Within the legal industry, most firms are using Office 2000 and 2003, neither of which will continue to be supported by Microsoft. More
 

This article was first published in ALA's July/August Legal Management publication and is reprinted here with permission. For more information about ALA, visit their website at www.alanet.org.

Human Resources and Facilities Management Trends
Doing More with Less

by Gina Buser of Traveling Coaches, Inc.

Increasing the productivity of secretarial staff can be achieved in a short period of time through a prescriptive learning program. The resulting efficiency translates to increased attorney-to-secretary ratios, reduced overtime, increased morale and the potential to add fee earners without the commensurate secretarial cost.. More

This article was first published in ALA's May/June Legal Management publication and is reprinted here with permission. For more information about ALA, visit their website at www.alanet.org.

Microsoft: Make the Leap to Office 2010
The Rewards of Early Adoption

by Charlene LeMaire of Traveling Coaches, Inc.

Law firm curiosity and enthusiasm for Office 2010 is very much on the rise. We’re frequently asked whether we recommend a migration to Office 2007 or Office 2010. The answer, of course, is that it depends on the unique
situation of each firm — timing, resources, integrated applications and business drivers. More

This article was first published in ILTA’s April 2010 white paper titled “Microsoft: Make the Leap to Office 2010” and is reprinted here with permission. For more information about ILTA, visit their website at www.iltanet.org.

Writing and Graphic Design for Trainers

by Carolyn Humpherys of Traveling Coaches, Inc.

Both content and design are critical to the creation of professional training materials. 

When information is poorly formatted it is difficult to understand, but like a box of cereal, pretty packaging won’t make up for it tasting like cardboard.  Adhere to the principle “form follows function” by focusing first on developing sound content, then on the design to give your materials a polished look.

No matter what your writing style, start by applying the four basic elements of good writing: Be clear in stating the purpose, theory and use of the application and features; Be concise in your choice of words; Be consistent in your phrasing; and above all Be correct in the information you are delivering!

Graphic design is important to trainers because just like magazine ads, training materials are communication tools.  Good design motivates people to use the materials because they’re able to locate and digest the information they need.  Not only do they learn more quickly, they’re more likely to retain what they’ve learned. Begin by applying the four elements of good graphic design to your materials: Contrast, Repetition, Proximity and Alignment. The combination and use of these elements will make your materials standout and give them a professional look.

Materials with high contrast are stronger, bolder and more interesting. Contrast can be brought into materials through the combination of large and small text, dark and light colors, wide and narrow shapes, and simply the contrast between whitespace and text. By making the different parts of a training guide distinct, the materials become easier to navigate and to use.

There’s more to repetition than just using the right styles at the right time, it’s using the same visual elements—color, shapes and lines—throughout the materials.  Echo these elements in your choice of bullet points and by incorporating the same shape into the header, footer and cover sheet of your materials.

It’s hard to discuss proximity without alignment. Proximity is the visual grouping of related information and alignment is the visual organization of materials. By aligning objects, placing them in proper proximity to each other and using white space effectively, we establish groups, create relationships, and bring organization and order to the content.

Proximity is accomplished through the use of white space. Place headings closer to the text that follows than the text that precedes them, and leave more space between groups than between items in a group.

When aligning objects, the rule to remember is:  Align everything on the page with something else on the page. You can organize objects either by aligning the centers or outer edges, but remember it’s the white space between the objects that establishes the relationship.  It’s just like hanging pictures on a wall.

These writing and design elements when brought together will breathe new life into dry technical materials, making them look interesting rather than intimidating.

Integrity

We keep our promises and take responsibility for our actions. We are trustworthy and consistently do the right thing.
 
Traveling Coaches proudly celebrates our fifteenth anniversary this year, an accomplishment we attribute in large part to our uncompromising integrity. We recognize that our customers want to partner with a company they can trust. They rely on the character, ability and strength of a business partner, which is why we work so hard to maintain a high standard of excellence with integrity.

We asked Traveling Coaches co-founders, Gina Buser and Char LeMaire, to give their perspective on leading with integrity.

Gina, Chief Executive Officer, responded with, “Integrity is tricky to explain, but simple to practice when you do what you said you would do. The fastest way to lose trust is to fail to follow through with your promises and commitments. To lead with integrity means that you don’t always make the easy choice, but you make the right one. Leading with integrity means being authentic and openly communicating your intentions and the reasons behind the decisions. Nobody is perfect, but we certainly aim for perfection on a daily basis.”

Char LeMaire, Chief Learning Officer, added “Be real. If you try to hide your weaknesses, people will find out about your weaknesses anyway. When you are real with people, they appreciate your honesty and relate better to you. Show humility. People respect you more if you are not driven by ego, jealousy or the belief that you are better than they are.”
 
Integrity, like each of our core values, was identified by the founders of Traveling Coaches as a critical component to a long term, successful business. Their vision of excellence fifteen years ago has shaped the way Traveling Coaches openly engages our clients, partners and team members to make sure we work in collaboration to keep our promises and maintain the trust we worked so hard to earn. We intentionally nurture an atmosphere of honesty and openness in our desire not only to grow, but to continually improve.

Integrity is the foundation upon which our company is built. It’s one of the reasons we have the distinct privilege of celebrating fifteen years in the industry. Our commitment is now and will always be to conduct ourselves both personally and professionally with the highest level of integrity. You can count on that.

Thank you for 15 wonderful years!

Firm University
Lessons Learned from Firm Universities

by Charlene LeMaire of Traveling Coaches, Inc.

At a time when firms are forced to do more with less, when competition for clients is more fierce, client demand for task-based billing is on the increase, and when secretary-to attorney ratios have increased to as much as 1:6 or 1:7, it is critical for firms to ensure that employees have the right tools, knowledge and skills. For many firms, the answer to building skills and knowledge is the firm university, a strategic tool designed for the development of employees. More

This article was first published in ILTA’s December 2009 white paper titled “Firm University: Lessons Learned” and is reprinted here with permission. For more information about ILTA, visit their website at www.iltanet.org.

Accelerating with Excel

by Diane Price of Traveling Coaches, Inc

"I'm not a numbers person so I will not use Excel." Let me take a moment and rattle THAT cage! 

Going the Distance

by Charlene LeMaire of Traveling Coaches, Inc.

Going the Distance!

Here are my top tips for delivering great distance training:

1)  Keep content relevant and timely

2)  Make sure the environment you are teaching from is configured appropriately for webinars. Use a training ID so that when teaching

     email related topics the trainer inbox is not viewed.

3)  Script the session – don’t wing it!

4)  Although scripted – don’t read it!

5)  Practice and time your session prior live delivery

6)  Don’t rush the delivery – allow time for questions, participation and review

7)  Provide learners with training materials prior to the live event

8)  Consider using a moderator to monitor questions from learners and keep them engaged

9)  Get learners involved by providing ways for them to interact with you and the other learners.  This will help build your

      firm’s learning community

10) Provide the next steps to further learning and retention. Ask open ended questions to get the learner involved such as

      “How do you intend on using this?” or “When can I follow up with you to see if you need more information?” 

11) Encourage practice of the new skill or concept. Without practice, the skill is never truly mastered. This is the same with any skill. Point users to an exercise document or tips for increasing proficiency.

12) Provide a recorded session that includes next steps to further learning and retention.  Put a SCORM wrapper on these so that they can be tracked in your firm’s LMS.

13) Follow up with learners after the event.

For those of you on the West Coast, join me on November 12th at the Bay Area Legal Trainers Organization meeting to learn more about great distance learning events.

CLASS-ifying Materials

by Carolyn Humpherys of Traveling Coaches, Inc.

When it comes to a good book, every novelist has a distinct writing style.  Technical writing is no different.  But while each of us have our own preferred style, “best practices” for writing curriculum remain constant.  Whether working solo or as part of a team, establishing a writing style will help take your training materials to the next level and, in fact, make writing easier.  Our CLASS™ materials have a very distinct flavor, the adoption of which I affectionately refer to as the “class-ifying” of materials.  While our detailed Writing and Style Guide that accompanies our CLASS™ materials is several pages long, it can be summed up into one word:  consistency. Consistency governs every aspect of technical writing and is the foundation of all best practices.  The more consistent the materials, the easier they are for users to follow.  Consistency is made up of two parts: instruction and design.  Clear instructions are always necessary for good training materials, and design is the element that helps deliver the message.

Here are a few examples of how consistency in both instruction and design can help you to develop stronger training materials:

· Headings - Phrase same level headings similarly.  For example, use nouns for all first level headings—such as Tabs, Indents, Styles—then use present participle verbs for all second level headings—Setting Tab Stops, Applying a Hanging Indent, Modifying Character Styles.

· Styles - Apply paragraph and character styles consistently. No direct formatting.  Assign shortcut keystrokes to the styles for quick application.

· Graphics - Capture all buttons in the same stage–on or off–and resize all graphics the same percentage.

· Steps - Phrase and format all similar steps in the same manner. For example, when directing users to click a button on a toolbar, instead of saying, “Click <name of button>,” we write,  “Click the <name> button [button screenshot] on the <name> toolbar.”  The user now knows more than just the object’s name, they know what type of object it is (a button), what it looks like and where it’s located.

These are just a few ways consistency can help you produce professional training materials. 

From Trainer to Performance Consultant
Learning Better Work Practices Is the Goal

by Charlene LeMaire of Traveling Coaches, Inc.

One of the joys that I have in my line of work is that I get to work with talented trainers from law firms all over the country — from AmLaw 100 to the small one-location, one-trainer firms — who share some common responsibilities. Most spend a good deal of time training new hires, participating in rollouts of new technology and providing targeted ongoing training classes either live in the classroom or remotely using a variety of distance learning technologies. All trainers wear many hats. I propose they add yet another duty and here’s why: Performance is not improving. More

This article was first published in the September 2009 issue of Peer to Peer, the quarterly magazine of ILTA, and is provided here with permission.  For more information about ILTA, visit their website at www.iltanet.org.

Why Rollouts Are a  Training Issue

By Char LeMaire of Traveling Coaches, Inc.

The very word “rollout” brings angst to even the most seasoned IT trainer. No matter what new software or system is being installed, the transition process can be stressful, confusing, time-consuming and expensive. You are responsible for making sure that all those who need training receive it in a way they understand and that they can apply to their jobs. More

This article was first published in ILTA’s December, 2008 white paper titled “User Support — Beyond the Classroom” and is reprinted here with permission. For more information about ILTA, visit their website at www.iltanet.org.

Transitioning to Office 2007

Word has evolved. Here's how to make it work for your office.

by Char LeMaire of Traveling Coaches, Inc.

It's been almost two years since Microsoft released Office 2007, and firms are starting to make the transition to this radically different version. If you have done your homework, then you know what is in store for your users. Following are some guidelines for a successful transition beginning with Word, the core product in this latest suite. More

This article was first published in ILTA's October, 2008 white paper titled “Microsoft — The Promise of New Technology” and is reprinted here with permission. For more information about ILTA, visit their website at www.iltanet.org

Why American Training Techniques Don't Translate

Preparation is Key When Taking Your Training Abroad

by Char LeMaire of Traveling Coaches, Inc.

My first experience training in foreign countries came in 1980. After graduating as a top student in my American company’s one-week intensive “train the trainer” course, I was shipped overseas to offer training courses to clients in Germany, Britain, The Netherlands, Greece, Italy and Belgium. I was 24 years old and fearless. Fearless quickly turned to fearful.  More

This article was first published in ILTA's August 2008 issue of Peer to Peer and is reprinted here with permission. For more information about ILTA, visit their website at www.iltanet.org.