m frequently struck by the degree to which working for a learning provider is like working at a restaurant. Some learning providers do that, too, while others prepare sumptuous feasts created specifically for the person or business consuming them. But they don’t just push back – they provide options and provide a good reason or two. Before I came to Enspire Learning I spent years working as a chef and restaurant owner. Some restaurants sling pre-packaged value meals. How can you improve your customer experience? How hard was it to find the place? MORE >>

Remedial math tutorials and a personal planning workbook provided individualized supports. A decade ago, an innovative job skills training program called EnterTech launched in Texas. The program combined simulations, team projects, and individual study and personal planning. The goal was to rapidly impart knowledge, skills, and attitudes to unemployed and under-skilled citizens for jobs in the then booming technology industries sector. If NASA can put a man on the moon…. How do you train an individual to work in an alien environment? new hire at EnterTech. MORE >>

It is, in process and product, an interactivity that’s fun, challenging, and provides a sense of reward far more sophisticated than an embrace. I love horses. As young as I can remember I was collecting model horses, setting up jumping trails, learning forelocks from fetlocks, doodling Appaloosas and Oldenburgs in the margins of all my written assignments. These days, most of my writing takes the shape of design documents and scripts, and there’s less room for horses in the margins. At age five in November in Massachusetts, I had my first riding lesson, on a palomino mare named Princess. MORE >>

Set up a system to provide team updates and share information more frequently? NPR Morning Edition aired a fascinating piece last week: “What Vietnam Taught Us About Breaking Bad Habits.” ” The context of the story was New Year’s resolutions and why breaking bad habits or even starting good habits is so hard to do. The question: “What does science know about translating our resolve into actual changes in behavior?” ” The answer: “People, when they perform a behavior a lot, outsource the control of the behavior to the environment.” MORE >>

So, for those of us that don’t have the ability to build $7MM flight simulators at home or at work, we can rest assured that even simple simulations that model only parts of the real world provide real value – whether you are managing people or airplanes. I’ve been in the simulation development business for ten years and have learned a bit about creating powerful simulation experiences, yet nothing I have done or seen so far comes close to the simulation I experienced at Southwest Airlines last week. MORE >>