Category: Learning Experience Design

Too Sexy for Your Training: Creating A “What’s In it for Me?” (WIIFM) When Your Learners Couldn’t Care Less

by Erin Krebs

Two integral parts of any large change within an organization are gaining buy-in for the change and developing internal change champions. As a strategic partner to our clients in helping foster behavior change within their organizations, we believe effective communications around the change are essential for buy-in and success. We can make the best training in the world, but if learners aren’t “buying in” at an organizational level, training can be deemed ineffective when, in reality, it has nothing to do with the quality of the training, but rather other organizational currents.

To help our clients address and overcome these challenges, we often weave in communication campaigns with our training deliverables. This helps learners understand the why and WIIFM behind the new process or procedure on which we’re training them. By first addressing the natural human resistance to change, we can pave the way for a successful learning experience.

There are a variety of ways in which we accomplish this with our clients. Below, I’ve provided a few examples of how we have done this in the past.

Approach

When a client comes to us with a project in which getting learner and organizational buy-in is essential to the effectiveness of the training implementation, we often recommend a communications or marketing campaign as part of our holistic solution. Depending on the nature of the client’s situation, this may include factors such as:

  1. Strategic analysis to identify the target audiences, current feelings about the change, and how to best communicate about the change, etc.
  2. Development of a marketing plan to outline specific methods for marketing, barriers that might arise, key messages for each audience type, and specific marketing channels for each target audience
  3. Development and implementation of communication pieces

Depth

Your approach can be quite simple for a minor change, or more robust for a significant organizational shift. If we’re rolling out a new training program and just want to create buzz about the program, we may go for a simple approach with minor (yet mindful) analysis and a couple of communication pieces such as an e-mail blast or Web site banner. For more robust implementations, including launching an entire training and development function, our approach is much larger. We include deeper analysis, development of a comprehensive change and communications plan, a marketing plan, and multiple communication pieces targeted to a variety of stakeholders over several months.

Marketing Plan

The first step in marketing the curriculum and individual courses is an analysis to:

  • Determine the best methods for marketing.
  • Identify any implementation or change barriers that might arise.
  • Identify specific marketing channels that will resonate with each of the target audiences.

As part of this analysis and design, we develop a detailed plan and timeline and identify the resources required to implement the marketing plan. This step is imperative for ensuring the marketing initiatives resonate with the target audiences and the approach is comprehensive in meeting all of the organization’s needs.

Marketing Vehicles and Methods

One outcome of the analysis is the identification of specific communication vehicles we can use to deliver messages in a manner our target audiences will easily receive and understand, and that provides a compelling call to action. We will add and remove items from this list based on the findings of the analysis. A few possible communication vehicles are:

  • Video casts or podcasts
  • E-mail blasts
  • Talking points for client stakeholders and leaders
  • Promotional items
  • Social network campaigns
  • Web site banners
  • Webinars
  • Press releases for internal and external newsletters
  • Interactive virtual course catalogs
  • Leader welcome message on home page
  • Phone calls
  • Management recommendations
  • Posters

 How are you using communication channels to engage your learners in new training programs?

Gaining Executive Buy-In for Training Programs

by Erin Krebs

You’ve done your homework and research, and designed a training program that you know will bring positive business results to your organization. Your team and immediate supervisor have weighed in, and you have a plan ready to put in front of the C-team. How do you make a pitch that works and has you looking like a rock star?

At SweetRush, we’re often partnering with our clients to present their program ideas and objectives to their C-level leaders. Here are a few techniques that we often use to ensure we give a concise and impactful message.

  1. Avoid “wimpy” words —both verbally and in writing — when gaining executive buy-in. Instead, use actionable and strong words. Don’t say, “The goal we are trying to accomplish is a 10 percent increase in sales by implementing this training program.”; instead,say, “We will see a 10 percent increase in sales by implementing this training program.” By keeping your language strong and concise, your idea will come across as more credible and likely to happen. The same goes for jargon: Just because your audience is in the same company, business, or whatever as you, doesn’t mean they understand your department’s jargon.
  2. Practice. Whether you’re presenting on your own, or with a team, remember to practice. The best athletic teams in the world practice for hours each day. Your presentation is a performance; apply the necessary practice hours needed beforehand to ensure your pitch is a success. This includes dry runs, technology checks, team practice, and individual presentations. With team practice, determine ahead of time who will field questions and/or which questions each team member is best prepared to answer.
  3. Keep it short. We are all short on time, and we expect it to be used wisely. Expect this even more from your organization’s C-level leaders. If you think your presentation should take an hour, find a way to do it in 45 minutes. Keep your message simple, concise, and to the point.
  4. Anticipate the questions. Put yourself in your audience’s shoes: What information will they want to know more about? What questions will they have? What do they need to know or understand to give you approval to move forward? As much as possible, learn about your audience’s preferences. Anticipate these questions and have responses prepared. If you’re not sure what questions to prepare for, ask your colleagues, your supervisor, and your social networks.

What other strategies do you use when presenting to leaders in your organization or your clients’ organizations?

If You Build It and It’s Not Mandatory, Will They Come?

by Erin Krebs

I’ve been working with a client this week who is seeking to develop a training program for an audience that is in no way required to participate in the program. I’m not going to get into the details of the client: Let’s just say that they manufacture luxury widgets, and they distribute these widgets through a nationwide network of independent widget retailers. The client wants to develop a training program for the sales associates and store managers at the independent retailers; but, because the sales associates are not employees of the widget company (they work for the independent retailers), there is nothing that requires them to take the training.

Which begs the question: How do you make training so good that people will take it even if they don’t have to?

Here are a few of the suggestions our team shared with our client:

  1. Develop and deploy a comprehensive marketing and communications plan for your training program. If you’re trying to get an audience to engage in training that their job does not mandate that they take, a communications plan is key. The “what’s in it for me” (WIIFM) argument has to be overwhelmingly strong. A key part of the communications strategy is engaging the right stakeholders. In this situation, there are a lot of people standing in between our widget manufacturers and our widget sellers — including stakeholders in distribution channels, store owners, and store managers to name a few. If these parties aren’t sold on the idea of the training, it’s never going to get to the intended audience — those folks actually selling the widgets to consumers like you and me. Bottom line: Engage your stakeholders early on, and develop a clear and comprehensive marketing and communications plan that gets at the WIIFM for all levels.
  2. Make the training fun (oh, and useful too!). Any training that isn’t required better be overwhelmingly helpful or extremely entertaining — preferably both. With compliance training or required training, we often use tight budgets and accelerated timelines as an excuse to develop less-engaging training. (Not that it is an excuse… It can still be engaging even within these limitations, but that is another blog post.) However, when your audience doesn’t have to take the training, you better pull out all the stops. This can be done affordably and within budget and timeline constraints when thought about strategically and mindfully from the onset.
  3. Keep it short. Think about the attention span of your learners. Five minutes may be all you really get; ten minutes if you’re lucky. You might get fifteen minutes if what you offer is extremely beneficial. Keep any non-required training short and in small chunks so learners can fit it into their day. This holds true regardless of the delivery method.
  4. Make it easy on management. If you design the training in a way that makes it lucrative to managers (see point 1), they can be your biggest advocates for continuing education for non-required training. The whole process has to be easy and require little effort on their part, however. This includes the delivery of the training itself (where it lives, who delivers it, etc.), and giving the manager the communication tools that explain the benefits of the training. Most importantly, the training should not take too much time away from the learners’ real job of selling more widgets.

These are just a few ideas. What do you do to make non-required training lucrative to learners?

Video Games Are Good for Your Mind. Designer’s Survival Guide: Gamification

by John-Carlos Lozano

Gamification (or just plain “gaming”) is a huge buzzword in the learning community. According to the experts in human behavior and brain development, gaming is not only good for you, but essential to the development of parts of our brains that control our cognitive skills. As with any topic of this nature, we will continue to evolve our approach as experts expand our knowledge of its true potential. But to get us started, in this first post of a series on gamification, let’s discuss the building blocks of gaming, which begin with something we are all familiar with: play.

Play is an essential part of gaming; in fact, a game is just play with rules. Play is the animal kingdom’s classroom. The urge to play is so strong that it can actually overrule the urge to eat! Check out this short video that I found after discovering a fascinating TED talk by Stuart Brown, called “Why Play Is Vital No Matter Your Age,” focused on the power of play. It can be argued that our traditional way of learning, where we sit and read in a classroom, is not most efficient way for us to learn. As Clark Aldrich asked in his book Learning Online with Games, Simulations, and Virtual Worlds, “Have you ever seen a mother lion with her cubs sitting at a blackboard being taught to hunt? No, they learn by playing.”

What does learning start with? It starts with a question. However, as Beau Lotto discusses in his TED talk, questions create uncertainty. Lotto argues that uncertainty is naturally a negative, “If you are uncertain that is a predator, then you’re most likely dead.” One could argue that to teach or train someone successfully, we would need to overcome that uncertainty. What better way than to use games? Uncertainty is at the core of every game and games are able to transform uncertainty into something fun and enjoyable.

If you are a visual designer, you may ask yourself, “Why is he talking about psychology and how we perceive our world around us?” I truly believe that gamification is not as simple as plopping on a leaderboard or a badge. To use gaming successfully to promote learning, we must understand why and how they work.

Stay tuned for more on this topic. I look forward to sharing all the research and forward-thinking that I encounter on a daily basis!

Designing for a New Generation of E-Learning. Designer’s Survival Guide: Top 10 Tips

by John-Carlos Lozano

As a designer, it’s easy to make pretty pictures. Now try making designs that go deeper. “Deeper how?”, you may ask. Certainly we perceive things visually, but the factors that motivate us and help us interpret those designs have more to do with the content. At the intersection of instructional design and visual design are some tips that can help ensure success in learning.

1. Design to meet the need.

Know your audience. Design is all about perception: the perception of your learners. During the needs analysis phase, get to know your audience — both from a content perspective and a design perspective — by understanding the key motivators of the audience. Then, and only then, can you integrate smart, creative UI design.

2. Look for patterns.

Use familiar user interface patterns that your learners are used to in the real world.

For example, when designing an iPad® app, it is important to first have a strong understanding of how iPad users already interact with the device. Take advantage of native navigational elements before creating new ones that might confuse learners.

3. Maintain consistency.

Learners appreciate consistent navigation and repeated tasks for gaining information. Help guide your learners by being consistent with your treatment of graphical assets, navigation, and feedback within your interface. Changing these elements mid-stream will disengage the learner and distract from the key learning objectives.

4. Bring visual order.

Design is a visual translator for the world’s information. Design effectively to highlight key points, reinforce key concepts, and lead the learners in the order and direction you want them to go. You can do this through the size, color, and location of elements used within your design.

5. Provide feedback.

As humans we need and crave feedback and direction. “Where should I go next?” “How did I do?” Support your learning objectives through the use of strong visual feedback, as well as written feedback where appropriate. Simple approaches, such as rollovers and clicks, can show the learner that something has happened.

6. Give ’em the rules.

Set expectations at the onset of a course so learners know what is coming. We know it’s important to state the learning objectives and evaluation criteria up front. How do you use design to support this? Define and demonstrate a consistent set of “rules” on how to navigate the course. By setting these expectations up front, learners can easily adapt to your learning environment and increase knowledge retention.

7. Hand the power to the user.

Adult learners crave autonomy and the ability to guide their own learning. Harness this power in your user interface design by allowing users to make decisions that empower and enable success in the learning experience.

8. Simplify, simplify, and simplify.

If your solution is not easy, fast, and fun, it will not be effective. The Law of Pragnanz states that as humans, we must organize our perceptions into the simplest form for quick understanding. Have mercy on the brains of your learners by using informational graphics to explain complex or dry content.

9. Test out your design.

Seeing how learners interact with and perceive your design is critical. This will allow you to make informed enhancements to your design, and create a stronger, more-effective learning experience. Always consider conducting user testing to gauge the audience’s experience.

10. When in doubt, research.

As Picasso once said “Good artists borrow; great artists steal.” New ideas are formed by inspiration. Inspiration can be drawn from the world around you. Knowing what others have done, and seeing their results, can help you avoid unnecessary mistakes. Create a Pinterest board or Evernote notebook of inspiring creative design and instructional design. Don’t have time? Try turning off the television. 😉

Now go use your new super powers to battle bad design.

Photo Credit: trianonsoficial via Compfight cc

Visual Perception. Designer’s Survival Guide: Tip of the Week

by John-Carlos Lozano

“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.” Steve Jobs was not the first to enlighten us with this quote; it was that brilliant Renaissance man, Leonardo Da Vinci, who coined the phrase. Simplicity and clarity are important factors in human perception and how we process visual information. One could possibly argue that Leonardo’s statement was a premonition for the future: a future where our human brains act as computer servers, constantly receiving information from an infinite amount of devices. Luckily, our brains have the intuitive ability to reduce information down to what’s essential and relevant. Our brains focus on what we perceive as important, and everything else fades to the background. As interaction designers, our challenge is determining not only what to include in our designs, but how to visually communicate key messages, so they are retained by our audience.

Before putting pen to paper (or tablet), it is best to understand the fundamentals of human perception. Luckily, some large-mustached German fellows (or at least that is how I imagine German scientists to look) in the early 20th century made things easy for us by observing and documenting how the human visual system works. To better demonstrate these principles, I challenged myself to create visuals that use simple shapes.

Gestalt Design Theory: Proximity
Proximity: The distance between objects affects our perception on how objects are organized.
Gestalt Design Theory: Similarity
Similarity: Objects the appear similar appear grouped.
Gestalt Design Theory: Continuity
Continuity: In order to fill int he missing data, we often see things as continuous or whole.
Gestalt Design Theory: Closure
Closure: Our mind wants to see objects as whole so badly that it makes stuff up.
Gestalt Design Theory: Figure Ground
Figure/Ground: Our mind organizes objects in the foreground and background.
Gestalt Design Theory: Symmetry
Symmetry: We tend to organize complex objects into a whole.
Gestalt Design Theory: Common Fate
Common Fate: Objects in groups who move in motion together are perceived as grouped.

Let’s have a little fun. Test your understanding of the Gestalt principles and see how many you can spot in this screenshot.

Gestalt Design Theory Test

How did you do? Compare your answers with mine.

  1. Continuity: Even though this bar goes behind the cloud, our eye continues on to make it a whole piece. This is also Figure/Ground because the cloud appears to be in front of the bar. Do you see continuity in any other place? Check out the skyline in the background.
  2. Closure: Even though the back and next arrow button circles are cut off, we know that they are circles.
  3. Proximity and Similarity
  4. Continuity is also seen here in the sliders.
  5. Common Fate: In the final version of this drag and drop, the hotspots blink in unison so the learner knows that this is the group where the tire can be dropped.
  6. Symmetry: This 3D object, though complex, is recognized by your mind to be a familiar shape: a dump truck.
  7. Figure Foreground: Items seem closer than the ground floor.

Thanks for reading, and stay tuned for more visual design lessons.

Tips and Best Practices for Training Millennials

by Erin Krebs

In our workplace today we see three primary generations: Baby Boomers, Gen X, and Millennials. Gen X, the generation sandwiched in between the Boomers and the Millennials, is only half as big as the Boomer generation. As Boomers retire, there will only be “experienced” workers to fill half of those positions. This means Millennials will have promotion opportunities much earlier, and will require more training and mentoring to support them through this transition.

Millennials – Who Are They?

  • Born between 1981–2000
  • Nearly 80 million in population (Baby Boomers = 72 million; Gen X = 41 million)
  • 41% of the total U.S. population
  • 25% grew up in single-parent households
  • 75% grew up with working mothers
  • About half are currently in the workforce

Here are a few tips for designing and delivering training to Millennials. The good news? Applying these will make your training stronger and more effective for everyone — not just Millennials.

  • Tell me up front what I need to know. Millennials want to know what is expected of them right away. Specifically, how will they be evaluated and what criteria will be used to evaluate them. In the training environment, clearly communicate to Millennials how the information they are acquiring ties back to their performance evaluations on the job. If there are going to be knowledge assessments or evaluations in the training, outline that information up front so the learners know what level of performance is expected of them.
  • Keep it tech-savvy. Millennials entering the workplace today have never known an educational environment that was not subject to constant and consistently changing technology. Whether it was PowerPoint® and projectors the size of suitcases early on, or innovative social-networking technologies used in their college classes, in the eyes of the Millennial, education and technology go hand-in-hand. One of the best ways to engage Millennials is to harness their tendency to engage in technology anyway, and weave in opportunities for technology throughout your training. In the classroom, this may mean using Twitter® to have groups share the results of a small-group discussion. Online, it may mean providing links and additional online resources that learners can access while taking their training if they want to learn more. Or, it may mean designing content so learners can access it on their laptop, iPad, or other device.
  • Coach and praise along the way. Millennials crave feedback and advice. Sometimes criticized for needing too much “hand-holding,” Millennials appreciate opportunities for coaching throughout a training experience. In the classroom, this may mean engaging mentors or senior associates to participate in portions of the training. Online, it may mean making “ask the expert” features available in the e-learning course, so Millennials can get the guidance and coaching they crave. As with all learners, incorporating praise and positive feedback into learning experiences increases engagement and knowledge retention. At SweetRush, we believe in the power of coaching and praise, woven throughout learning experiences.
  • Say it with visuals. Using visuals effectively is important in all training. It’s a delicate balance of using enough, but not too much that you overwhelm the learners. Millennials are used to information constantly being thrown at them through visuals — whether it’s the ads that pop up as they are surfing the web on their iPads, or the information they can quickly access on the phone while waiting at the doctor’s office. A great way to get information across quickly, in an easy-to-understand manner, is through the effective use of infographics.

For more about Millennials in the workplace, see my colleague Andrei Hedstrom’ post, Values-based Culture as a Critical Attractor for Millennials.

Photo Credit: International Information Program (IIP) via Compfight cc

Job Aids… and If You Need Them

by Erin Krebs

In a recent training class that I am attending, I received the most perfect “job aid” to take home with me and apply “on the job” in the coming months. You see, my husband and I are in training to become parents of a newborn, and the job aid we received in class last week was entitled “Colors of Poop: A Quick Reference Guide.”

Now, for the veteran parents out there, you are likely experts in all of the important meanings of the shades, textures, and liquidity of one’s child’s poo. For a soon-to-be-parent who knows nothing of this important subject matter, however, a job aid was extremely helpful — not only for providing reference points and context for my husband and I during the class (we are both the youngest children in our families and the first to have our own children, so our poo experience is rather limited), but also useful for us to take home and use “on the job” here in a few weeks.

But, similar to many job aids you may have received over the course of your professional lives, our job aid quickly got placed in a stack of VIPs (very important papers) that will likely collect dust and not be in any way accessible to me in the middle of the night, in a few weeks, at my moment of true need. This got me thinking: Do the job aids I build for client course’s end up in a VIP stack in someone’s office, unable to be accessed when the poo really does hit the fan and they need their job aids on the job?

If you’re working on job aids for a course you are developing for yourself, or maybe when designing one with a vendor-partner, here are a few great tips you can use to keep your job aids from ending up in a stack of dusty VIPs.

  1. Don’t make a job aid just for the sake of making a job aid. If you’re going to take the time to invest in developing a job aid, and then delivering it (whether in print, digitally, etc.), take a moment to pause and ask yourself, “Will my learners actually use this job aid?” If you were performing the task a few weeks down the road, would you take the time to find your job aid amongst your dusty stack of VIPs, or would you simply “Google it” or IM someone to find a quicker response? Job aids are excellent tools when relevant and useful. Invest only in making job aids that serve an ongoing purpose. If you’re not going to reach for the job aid next time you complete a task, don’t expect your learners to either.
  2. If you make a job aid, make the format accessible for use on the job. This sounds obvious, but ohhh how often we miss this. Let’s take my job aid for example: In the middle of the night, when suffering from multiple weeks of sleep deprivation, am I going to find my job aid and compare real-life sample colors to those outlined in my brochure? Probably not. But, say, perhaps I had been given a simple laminated card for example with basic colors and meanings on it, I might pin it up right next to my changing station for quick reference in my time of need. Whether you’re making print job aids, or digital job aids, think about where your learners are going to be in the moment they need the job aid. If they’re sitting at their computer, there’s likely no need for a printed job aid.
  3. Your job aid has to be accurate and easily kept up to date. For a job aid to be useful, it has to be accurate and easily kept up to date. For example, if you are selecting a new paint color for your kitchen, it does you absolutely no good if the job aid (the color sample) ends up being drastically different than the color that actually appears on your walls once you’ve purchased and applied the paint. Similarly, if you create a job aid that gives instructions on how to access an online software system, the job aid has to be in a format that can be kept up to date should the system change. Depending upon your job aid, you may find that digital or print is a better fit in helping you keep your job aid accurate and up to date.

What tips do you have for designing useful job aids?

On Being an Instructional Designer, Part Two

by Catherine Davis

Life seemed a lot more challenging before having that virtual portal to the world at my fingertips — the Internet. Everything took so long, and I had to really work to obtain information! Driving an hour through snowdrifts to locate the only copy of academic journals in the tri-county area; muddling through mazes of dimly lit, dusty stacks of books; pumping copy machines full of dimes; taking power naps on avocado-green vinyl couches in preparation for excavating resources on the second half of my to-do list… and so on.

Being an ID and a manager, I recognize that life is good when I can relax in my comfy recliner with my feet up and access virtually any piece of information I want in a matter of seconds. I can keep abreast of what’s happening in the world of learning, sharpen my skills, test out the latest software packages and stay fresh on most everything I care to. As mentioned in Part One, I want to share a few of my favorite online resources for expanding my knowledge and skills, both on the ID front and in other areas of interest to me. None of these resources cost a dime… unlike the copy machines I fed over the years.

  • The Articulate Community
    • Download free trial versions of the Articulate Suite, including Storyline.
    • Watch numerous “how-to” functionality videos.
    • Check out the gallery of creative course examples for ideas and inspiration.

 

  • TED Talks and the Kahn Academy. There is a never-ending variety of educational and technical topics available to you. Sound overwhelming? Just set some mini-goals for yourself, such as focusing on one topic per week or month where you want to hone your skills or explore something new.

 

  • Coursera. This site offers a variety of college-level courses along with a certification if you complete the offline assignments. Like many busy professionals, I have time to audit courses by only watching the lectures. The commitment averages about one hour per week for this. Take note, they offer a six-week course on gamification, which will give you the basics to this latest trend in learning.

 

  • YouTube videos. It’s not all pets doing tricks or people ranting and raving about nothing in particular. There are loads of professional and self-educational videos on how to use various software packages or speakers focusing on the latest trends. Again, focus on one topic and carefully chose to watch a handful of videos. You can usually tell by the user rating if the content hits the mark and is worth your time.

 

Every day, the set of resources on the sites listed above continues to grow. Other sites continually pop up and expand as well. Be sure to take advantage of these fantastic resources as you work on new projects. Believe me, most interviewers and managers are pretty impressed if an ID mentions a relevant TED talk or other video resource when brainstorming on a project.

In case you missed it, in Part One I discuss the fundamentals managers like me are looking for to build a growing and successful ID team.

 

On Being an Instructional Designer, Part One

by Catherine Davis

“Do you work for the county ‘ID-ing’ bodies?” Such a response is accompanied by a furrowed brow from a perplexed individual when I respond to the question: “What do you do for a living?” I’ve learned to leave the term “ID” out of the equation and give a simple answer. Those of us in the learning industry know exactly what an ID is. An instructional designer is a content hunter/gatherer, an interviewer, a diplomat, a writer, a conceptual artist, and so much more.

But what does it take to be a successful ID in today’s climate? I can offer a few thoughts from the positive experiences I have had while in the trenches. If you are interviewing potential new team-members or vendor-partners, these are essentials to have on your checklist. And if you are on the other side being interviewed, take note: These are the fundamentals managers like me are looking for to build a growing and successful team.

  • Keep skills fresh. Yes, there are always new workshops and certifications you can obtain. But these likely will cost you some money. Don’t get me wrong, I do not discount their value, but there are loads of webinars, templates, videos, QRGs, etc. on the Internet that are FREE FREE FREE! Take advantage of these opportunities. I will offer up my preferred resources in part two of this blog.
  • Show appreciation. Send a thank-you email, eCard, or even an old school hand-written card to an interviewer or others who took that extra step to help you. Reciprocate kindness with kindness and you will be remembered.
  • Have a “can do” attitude. I know this is cliché, but it’s a measure of success. Focus on how you solve problems, pose creative alternatives, function well as part of a team, and go the extra mile. We have all had bosses and coworkers in the past that just didn’t “click” with us. Leave them in the past. Shut the door and throw away the key. Don’t invite them into your new gig or have them join you, in spirit, on an interview.
  • Be on time. All interviewers and managers know the interview and the initial projects kick-offs are part of the honeymoon phase. If you are late for these initial appointments, you are showing you will be habitually late for most of your internal and client meetings and calls. Show up early and bring work, a book, or an iPad with you for entertainment while you wait.

Sure, these ideas (and several more I could list) may seem like common sense. But it’s always nice to have a refresher for a self-check and do the necessary course correction, whether you are interviewer or interviewee. Now read on for Part Two, which focuses on some of my favorite online resources to keep your mind and your ID skills sharp.