Posted by Irene Barnett on Mon, Feb 15, 2010
Recycling is for more than plastic and cans. Not using the documentation that is hiding somewhere in your organization is wasteful, and conservation is really trendy right now.
The raw material is already there
You have training you need to develop and you know, somewhere in the recesses of your organization, there has to be material you can leverage for it. But, you have no idea where to find it. Many people end up reinventing the wheel for the same result, costing organizations time and money.
There are plenty of content management systems out there that will gather content and organize it. But, how does it know the audience, their location, the right delivery for the right student?
The key is to put a trained eye to the stack of training documentation, product specifications, whitepapers, presentations, graphics and Help files to put all the puzzle pieces together.
The Content Architect Process from implement.com
Here's a process we've used that has helped many training organizations get solid training plans together, keep costs in check and keep the training team from pulling their hair out.
There is a special hybrid of training and technical writer out there that I call "Content Architects". These people have an uncanny talent. They are able to walk into a business they have little specific background in and go through a series of discovery steps.
They know how to glean the information they need in order to organize content and provide direction on any gaps. These are special people who tend to have a lot of interesting facts to share at cocktail parties too.
I've been lucky enough to work quite a bit with these folks over the years and have found they are invaluable to clients in need of a true content partnership. They are that missing piece, the trained eye, that can truly help bring your content library into focus.
What we have done for many of our clients involves a few simple steps:
- Discovery. Depending upon the client, this can be as simple as a series of interviews and access to the storeroom. This is that important "getting to know you and your business" piece that gets us the global view of what is important to you, your students and your boss. It helps guide us to the end goal or objective.
- Viability. Identify if the proposed training addresses a current pain point in your organization or if there are career objectives for the student. Does your existing content meet these needs?
- Definition. Which elements of the proposed training work and which do not? Is an instructor-led, classroom training the best route? Or, is a self-paced environment more in line with what your students need? Are there gaps in your library that need to be filled or are updates necessary?
- Plan of Action. The final step pulls all these pieces together, creating a useful design document and a solid curriculum plan.
At the end you not only have a clear, organized curriculum plan in place, but an exceptional writer who can deliver the polished product who understands your business from the 400-foot-level...oh, and a great addition to any cocktail party.
Let's hear from you. What content is locked up in your organization, just waiting to be found, designed and built into a Valuable Training Content System?
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