Why, indeed, start on an award that’s not due until September?

Well, if you’ve never before applied to the T125, you may well want to wait until the 2014 application is released in May.

But if you just found out your 2013 ranking a week ago, and got your scoring today, now is the perfect time.

Why?

1. It’s top of mind. You’re either thrilled with where you placed and raring to go to improve yet more next year, or you’re not so thrilled with where you placed and raring to go to improve next year.
2. You know how you scored. The nice folks at Training magazine are kind enough to rate you numerically AND tell you how they did it. And now, as ever, knowledge is power.
3. You’ve got time to change reality. If you don’t start until August to work on the 2014 application, you’re pretty much stuck with whatever reality presents in August. But if you start now, you have six months to potentially move the needle in areas where you didn’t score so well.

An additional motivation: my Training Top 125 award resources are available this week only at last year’s prices, a savings of up to $500.

If you want to be in it to win it, here’s my advice: be in it to win it.

Winning awards sets you apart. For a long time.

My very first award client was the inimitable, indefatigable Karie Willyerd, now VP of Learning and Social Adoption at SuccessFactors.

She has many, many achievements to her name, but continues to include important award wins from when I worked on Sun’s applications.

Why?

Because they were powerful then, and they’re powerful now.

Exhibit A: Here’s the bio accompanying her March 28 Training Magazine Webinar, The 3.5 Million Year Daily Talent Cliff (for which I  have already registered).

About Karie Willyerd

Karie is the Vice President of Learning and Social Adoption at SuccessFactors. Prior to that she was the cofounder and CEO of Jambok, the industry’s first informal social learning platform, which was acquired by SuccessFactors in March, 2011. Karie was formerly Chief Learning Officer for Sun Microsystems, and prior to that, was the Chief Talent Officer for a Fortune 200 company. During the last 24 months at Sun, Karie and her team won over 30 awards for excellence in creating an innovative learning & development function for Sun Microsystems. In October 2009, ASTD named Sun the #1 BEST learning function in the world. In February of 2010, Sun was named #11 by Training 125.

Karie is the coauthor of the bestselling book The 2020 Workplace: How Innovative Companies Attract, Develop & Keep Tomorrow’s Employees Today (Harper Business May, 2010). Along with Jeanne Meister, she is a regular blogger for Harvard Business, and their article on Mentoring Millennials was a feature article in the May, 2010 issue of Harvard Business Review.

Sunny, yes. Warm, nope.

I’m in Orlando – yes, at the Magic Kingdom – for Training 2013, a mega learning industry event sponsored by Training Magazine. Excited to pick up new tips and insights on measuring learning program success – the key to winning awards.

I just want to know one thing: is it ALLOWED to be this cold in Florida?

While I’M here?

Never mind. Bring it on!

Hope to see folks at:

• Booth #100, where I’m sponsoring a lounge area
• My Tuesday afternoon session, “Win More, Rank Higher: How to Develop Effective Learning Award Submissions,” 3:30pm, Cancun

Thanks and stay warm, Florida!

More winning materials for you.

My blog series, 7 Tips on How to Win Awards*, is now a colorful, engaging guide, available SOON for digital download.

Creating this guide, and preparing to speak about it at the 2013 Training Conference in Orlando, has inspired me to revisit it here.

One topic near and dear to me is Tip #6: Be succinct.

A great way to understand this maxim is by way of example, so here’s a favorite. These are annual goals for a corporate learning organization:

BEFORE

I’ve said it before and it bears repeating: applying for awards makes you better.

Why? Here are just three good reasons:

1. You start playing to win. It’s happened with more than one award client. We’re talking about a certain program and applying for an award for that program and someone will say, “well, we really should do X” or “we really should add Y.” The implication is “…so that we have a better chance of winning” but the outcome is that the program will be better because of X or Y.

2. You get third party feedback. Many awards will provide judges’ feedback and comments after an award contest. This can provide invaluable expert perspective.

3. You get your measurement act together. Sometimes it’s simply the process of applying for an award that makes the metrics questions really hit home: What are we measuring? Why? What else could we be measuring? Of course the outcome isn’t just a stronger award application – you also get more compelling measures of your impact. And who doesn’t need that?

Aspiring to win is really just aspiring to greatness, with new inspiration.

The theme of my 2012 holiday video is storytelling. And it’s pretty funny, so if you haven’t yet, or even if you have, take a look.

Storytelling is actually a critical component of communications in general and business communications specifically.

And much has been written recently about storytelling in a business context. In a LinkedIn series, Daniel Goleman, of Emotional Intelligence fame, has a series excerpting conversations with developmental psychologist great Howard Gardner.

This title says it all: “Effective leaders are effective storytellers.” As Goleman recaps, “how and when leaders might use storytelling techniques to motivate and inspire.”

A later article, “Strategic storytelling,” won my heart because Gardner expounds on many of the same points I make with clients.

In discussing levers leaders can use to effectively leverage stories to inspire and motivate, naturally, he begins at the beginning: “First, it depends on who you are dealing with.”

In other words, knowing your audience is key. Now, where have I heard that before…?

This leading business mind also brings up a theme I’ve blogged about before: overcoming resistance.

“When you tell a story, the story is never an immaculate conception. Everybody has got many other stories in their mind, and those stories are often quite resistant to the story you want to tell,” Gardner says.

“Almost everybody – and I’m unfortunately a textbook example of that – spends too much time trying to convince you of the story that I want to tell, and not enough time thinking of all the reasons why you might be embracing a very different kind of story. The shrewdest mind-changers spend a lot of time trying to understand what the resistances are and how to deal with them.”

Great food for thought – perhaps the main course after the video appetizer?

Come on back for more on storytelling in future posts… and do leave your comments.

I’m a big fan of our 16th president.

Since seeing the movie Lincoln (incredible) and now reading “Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln,” the book upon which Lincoln was based in part (Doris Kearns Goodwin is my new role model), I’m pretty into Honest Abe.

As I learned in “Team of Rivals,” Abraham Lincoln first became known in public life for his storytelling (a topic you’ll hear more about from me very soon…). As a country lawyer, he and his compatriots traveled Illinois following the district court judge, seeking out clients flocking to halls of justice across the state.

In the evenings, lawyers and clients alike would then flock to the local tavern, where Lincoln would inevitably draw the attention of all with his masterful tales. It wasn’t long before his reputation preceded him, and regularly folks from miles around would travel to crowd taverns late into the evening. Thus began a great story.

Loving all things Lincoln, the article, “4 Leadership Lessons From Abraham Lincoln,” published today on Entrepreneur.com, caught my eye.

Truly, if you haven’t yet seen Lincoln, I highly encourage you to do so. It is a story worth telling about a president, and a time, worth knowing.

You’d also readily recognize these four traits from the film:

1. Say no to “Yes Men.” Lincoln brought all three of his Republican primary rivals into his cabinet, with his closest adversary in the most powerful role.

2. Be decisive. The Civil War president listened carefully to the opinions of others, but knew when he had to forge ahead.

3. Look for inspiration in unlikely places. Apparently, while serving in Congress, Lincoln “studied mathematics to gain wisdom in reasoning.”

4. Connect with people on a personal level. Lincoln opens with a battle scene, followed by Lincoln conversing with individual soldiers, black and white, behind the front. He held office hours at the White House, regularly meeting with ordinary citizens.

Extraordinary.

For more on Lincoln’s political prowess, read “6 Ways To Make A Team Of Rivals Work” on Forbes.com.

You should read this post because you’ll learn a lot.

A smart Web site I often cite here, Copyblogger, recently published a(nother) smart, helpful article entitled The 5 Most Persuasive Words in the English Language, by Gregory Ciotti.

One of the five I found particularly fascinating:

3. Because

In brief, people are more likely to do something if you tell them why. For example, in a study, 60% of people allowed a participant to cut in line for the Xerox machine without him giving a reason, vs. 94% who agreed when he added, “because I am in a rush.”

But wait: around 93% of people agreed to let him go ahead when he noted, ”because I have to make copies.”

Wow.

How does this translate to communications? Ciotti writes, “…you have to remember that when you are focusing on writing persuasive copy, it all comes down to answering your customer’s #1 question: What’s in it for me?”

Just substitute “employee” for “customer” and there you have the internal comms application. Always, always, always remember the WIIFM.

As Ciotti points out, “…even giving weak reasons have been shown to be more persuasive than giving no reason at all.”

Words to live by. Because I said so.

Who do YOU design for?

There’s a lot of talk these days about user experience design, also known as UED, UEX and UX, typically applied to Web sites, apps and other so-called human-computer interaction (HCI).

Simply defined, it’s design decisions based on the needs and wants of users. In other words, UX designers had better know: who do you think you’re talking to? (my beloved slogan).

So, there’s a lesson here about communications. I asked my favorite UX designer/graphic designer/videographer*/ex-journalist/urban hipster/all-around strategic genius, Steven Neuman, for some insights.

Author and interviewee at corporate event, 2011

DA: So how would you define UED/UEX/UX (and do you have a preferred term)?

SN: I personally stick to UX – it’s become the industry standard and it’s really the most recognized way to talk about paying attention to how real people use computer-like devices, interfaces or even real-world interactions where technology in any form plays a role. I like to say that UX is invisible if it’s done properly. Most people only notice when someone hasn’t been paying attention to UX: Think of that crummy ATM where you just spend 20 seconds staring, just trying to get your bearings, or my favorite bad-UX strawman, those terrible digital cable box menus.

Those interfaces are really products of UX design work, so if I need to define the role of a user experience professional I would say she is tasked with balancing user needs, business requirements and technical limitations. It’s like trying to keep three plates spinning at once. Some will always be spinning faster, but you don’t want any to fall down entirely.

DA: As a former journalist, what do you see as the links between UED and communications?

SN: There’s really a tremendous amount of interviewing, narrative and storytelling in UX so I find there’s a lot of overlap. Most of the time we start with User Research – we’re doing interviews trying to understand what people need – and then we’ll create personas based on that empirical research. You then put those personas into fictional scenarios and tell stories to see what the product needs in order to fill the users’ needs. You start to create a real picture of someone and that really lets you get away from marketing-style concepts and really build things that people love and are highly usable. Also, in UX you can keep going back to the well and do testing and data mining of analytics to improve your products after a first pass, and that really draws on some the investigative techniques you develop as a journalist.

I’ll go back to that first ATM example. Maybe 10 years ago someone did some user research and using data from existing ATM machines figured out that a lot of people use the ATM to do a small number of key functions and one of them was probably withdrawing $40 of cash from checking.  In creating a “fast cash” button that just spits out $40 bucks and closes the transaction they saved people from having to do tons of unnecessary navigating just by rearranging the information architecture and applying some content strategy. That is a feature I know I use all the time and although it’s seeming small it makes my experience a little smoother and makes ATMs a more usable product.

Most people would not have been able to ask for that feature explicitly. There’s an old Henry Ford quote, and it’s probably apocryphal, “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.” You have to know how to get beyond what people say they want and read between the lines, so in some ways I’m still searching for the bigger truth.

DA: What do you find most compelling about your work as a UX designer?

SN: UX design really requires me to use all my skills. I have to be creative enough to solve a problem and have empathy and understanding for the user. I have to advocate for an otherwise silent stakeholder and that means paying attention to many different components like the information architecture, the visual design asthetic and the interaction design – and they all have to work together seamlessly. When you pick up a product you might not be conscious of all the work on those areas individually but collectively they make for a better experience and consciously people DO actually chose that over a bad or mediocre experience.

I firmly believe that’s also really why UX has become important and even somewhat buzz-worthy in the last few years. We’re becoming highly sophisticated as users and technology has become ubiquitous so quality has become a major differentiator in a very crowded market.

Thanks, Steven!

So who do you design for, and how do you take their needs into account? Please let me know or comment below.

Regardless of your politics, the guy is pretty impressive.

There’s been a lot written lately about Nate Silver, aka King of the Geeks, aka Math Celebrity, aka Emperor of Poll Palace:

• Huff Post: Nate Silver, Pop Culture Star: After 2012 Election, Statistician Finds Celebrity
• Harvard Business Review blog: How Nate Silver Won the 2012 Elections
• Inc.: 4 Lessons From Nate Silver’s Election Predictions

Yet I couldn’t help but be attracted to an article by Brad Smith, President & Chief Executive Officer of Intuit, entitled, “What Nate Silver Can Teach Us About Leadership.”

Now, if you guessed that what Smith wrote, given that he is an accounting software company CEO, is the importance of correctly interpreting and leveraging data, you’d be right. But not exactly.

Smith, it seems, is a proponent of “an experiment driven culture, where it is not the opinion of the highest paid person in the room that drives key decisions, but the data derived from experiments.”

I’m no math whiz, but I’ll vote for that.

P.S. One correction:  The Hollywood Reporter allegedly said Nate Silver had “made statistics sexy again.” Again?