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Personal Professional Development Plan

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Companies and organizations are well-served to create and support opportunities for employee development. Developing employees helps teams to build knowledge and skillsets that contribute to productivity and efficiency for improved day-to-day operations and outputs (Career Insights, 2020). National trends indicate that companies with organization-wide employee development programs experience an average of 24% increase in profit margins, approximately 128% increase in employee income, and a 45% employee retention rate (Hill, 2021). Because the world continues to evolve, employees should continue to develop and learn within their professional roles. For that purpose, I attempted to compose a professional development plan that supports my current role. The plan includes four training components - formal training, professional coaching, peer mentoring, and continuing professional development - to help facilitate an effective transfer of sustained knowledge that will continue to develop and
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High Tech Training

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Technology continues to transform how instruction, training, and learning occurs. The integration of networks, hardware, software, and design influence how knowledge is transferred. Whether internally or externally, organizations utilize technology to construct and deliver instruction as well as to determine the effectiveness of the delivery (Lockett, 2022). This posting examines five technologies for training, their current impacts, and future implications for training. Simulations and Games signify the use of technology to actively engage learners in an experiential exploration of instructional design elements. Best used to instruct complex processes (Noe, 2020). More traditionally used to train within manufacturing settings (Noe, 2022), simulations and games challenge learners to gain an understanding of concepts through application and practice (Arshavskiy, 2021). Benefits include active engagement, adaptability, self-paced, standardization, and cost-effectiveness. Continued advan
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Scope Creep & the Gift-Purchase Project

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Scope creep or the addition of features or tasks beyond the pre-established plan or requirements can quickly occur and impact the extent of what is accomplished or produced (Larson & Larson, 2009). Whether positively or negatively, scope creep impacts timelines, budgets, and levels of stakeholder satisfaction. Each year, I am unsuccessful at managing the scope of a project without the intrusion of scope creep much to the detriment of the established budget. The Christmas holiday season ushers in the start of the gift-purchase project - a major recurring project that I look forward to managing every year. In this scenario, I fill the roles of project manager, designer, key personnel, and stakeholder. From a project management standpoint, I analyze the individuals for whom I plan to purchase gifts followed by an examination of product availability and prices and establish a detailed budget, list of tasks, and timeline for task completion. The challenge of scope creep begins to occu
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Choose Your Tool: Two Project Development Resources to Support Workflow

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              The tasks of project management are numerous and varied and can easily cause project managers (PMs) to feel overwhelmed (Walden University, LLC (Executive Producer), n.d.). Being equipped with tools and strategies to organize the sequence and assignment of tasks and task activities can assist with project navigation and guiding project teams. Whether as a team or individual, project managers are challenged to complete projects on time and on budget. Utilization of workflow schedules provides a visual representation of the project life cycle – initiating, planning, executing, monitoring/controlling, and closing (Adobe Experience Cloud, 2022) – and offers a framework for project development and completion.             This post spotlights resources that may prove useful in planning an instructional design (ID) project schedule. Located through a web search, brief descriptions and evaluations of the identified resources are provided along with a perception of value and use
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Communicating Effectively

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  When I think of communication, I generally envision two or more individuals having an exchange of words, either written or orally, as means of relaying a message. However, the reality is that communication occurs in a variety of ways and uses several modalities. IGI Global (formerly Idea Group, Inc.), considered an innovative leader in the dissemination of knowledge, defines communication modality as the use of input channels for the purposes of transmission exchange (IGI Global, 2022). The number of categorized communication modalities varies based on who you ask or the sources you reference. The most recognized modalities are verbal, auditory, written, and non-verbal. Within each of these four modalities are facial expressions, body language, sign language, tone, etc. Yet, there are so many additional ways that people communicate. Technology advancements have contributed to the communication evolution. Face-to-face, text, messaging, email, memes, etc. With each message relayed and
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Planning for A Needs Assessment of Whole Foods Market: People, Places, and Artifacts

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  Background Founded in 1980 as a local food grocery store in Austin, TX, Whole Foods Market provides natural and health foods (Whole Foods Market, 2022). Since its founding, the company has grown to become a leader in the natural and organic supermarket industry (IPL, 2022). Its mission is “to nourish people and the planet” as a purpose-driven company (Whole Foods Market, 2022, para. 1). Its motto “Whole Foods, Whole People, Whole planet undergirds its culture and desire to create an experience that has garnered recognition as “America’s Healthiest Grocery Store” (Whole Foods Market, 2022). The company has six core values that further contribute to its culture and guide how it conducts business with each group of stakeholders: ·          High Product Quality ·          Customer Satisfaction ·          Employee Growth and Satisfaction ·          Effective Reciprocal Partnerships (suppliers) ·          Create Profits and Prosperity ·          Serve and Support Communities
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Project Post-Mortem: The 20/20 of Hindsight

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    What contributes to the success of a project? How can unexpected challenges be avoided in the management of future projects? The delivery of completed projects should come with a sense of pride and accomplishment. However, a retrospective examination of a project from beginning to end, or project post-mortem, helps with the level of project success (or failure) in meeting the client’s goals (McLaughlin, 2013).  This post narratively offers the results of a simplistic post-mortem reflection of a personal project management experience. Several years ago, I lead the planning, development, and implementation of a statewide project designed to engage undergraduate students from across the state who had an interest in pursuing health-related careers. The project involved creating a college-skills type course that would demonstrate the application of academic success skills as lifelong learning skills within the health arena while also engaging students in a self-directed career explorati
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