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The
first rule of information is that it changes rapidly. That has always been true.
A lot of information in the computer industry comes from what one person
tells another person. There is a
game designed to show this in action. One
person whispers a phrase or short story to another who then tells another and so
on. At the end of the line the last
person describes the story as they heard it and everybody usually gets a laugh
at how much it changed from what they heard. It sometimes is unrecognizable from the original story.
Information changes rapidly. Why
talk about a silly game usually used to teach children about the impact of
gossip? I believe a big challenge
for information technology in the near future is consistent communication and
education. So far most companies
have relied on their employees learning the skills that are needed. In the past most people learned the skills needed to get a job but do not
think they need to continue to learn new skills to keep the job they have.
Many companies do nothing about this problem; few companies send their
employees to training centers to get skills related to specific tasks. Sometimes people associated with budgeting and accounting get to go to
Excel Spreadsheet training. Others
who do much typing get to go to Word Processing classes. The rare few special ones get training in databases such as Access.
Other key programs usually do not get addressed at all.
If
somebody needs to manage a project they usually create a spreadsheet for the
purpose or maybe pick up programs such as Microsoft Project and struggle through
them on their own. Microsoft
Outlook is so simple for email and calendar that very few take classes in it.
However there are many things possible with Outlook especially when
connected to an Exchange Server that many of us do not do. Many of us could benefit from presenting a better image and yet do not
learn the power included in Publishing or Page Layout programs. I have personally committed to do a better job of communicating various
computer concepts and I will be using PowerPoint to help me present that
information. Let’s not even talk
about web-development. My 12 year
old daughter is designing a website using FrontPage so someday I will learn it
from her. Before long many of us
will need to be able to publish information available to others through a
web-browser.
My
first heart-to-heart message is to individuals. There are two major points here.
Learning about these programs will make you a valuable employee and when
it comes right down to it the ultimate responsibility is yours. It is wonderful when your employer or manager puts into their budget
money to keep you educated about the programs you use. It would be wonderful if they saw into the future and identified the
skills and programs you will need, but that is very rare. In the information age ahead, yes I still say ahead, businesses will seek
out people that can use computer programs proficiently. Most people I come across however only know how to use Word and Excel and
not many of the features in either. I
am not trying to criticize the use of these two programs because actually I
believe they will become even more critical tools of the information age. Excel in particular will be used not just to present flat static data as
it is so often used now but it will be used to analyze dynamic data directly
linked to data sources inside your company and many data sources outside your
company. Think of it as a powerful
yet simple to use reporting tool, the capability for that is already built into
Excel. The data outside your company ties in more with a future article but just
imagine comparing sales and demographic data from your company with that of the
entire industry in which you participate. I’m
not talking about finding this data in a magazine or hiring an expensive market
researcher to do the analyses for you, I’m talking about linking directly with
data probably provided by a marketing company through the Internet and comparing
it to your own to analyze trends for previous years, this year, this month or
even this week. After you do this
analysis you can slap it into a memo using Word and add the action points you
want to get across and fire that all off to the critical people in your
organization. And how many people
use spreadsheets only to add or subtract numbers or maybe get a percentage.
How about analyzing data to determine a trend or predict the
probability of something happening? You
need to know how to do these things to be effective at your job.
Now
a few words to employers: If you
are the owner of a company or the manager of people, training is also an
important issue. There could be an
un-tapped market in your business. How
do we find these markets? Accidentally
or by mistake is one possibility. When
this has happened in the past it is legendary. Post-it notes came about by mistake.
This can certainly happen but I wouldn’t stake my future on it. More likely the hidden market will come out of analyzing data as I
mentioned above. It will come from
yourself or creative employees who are empowered to think and create. The stories of companies ignoring the brilliance of their employees are
also legendary. Perhaps if some of
those people had been able to present their ideas using the application tools we
have on the computer today they would have been listened to and the world would
be a very different place. Do you
want to miss the brilliant ideas of the people around you? The worth of an employee that works hard and can type rapidly or put
together a convincing report is high. However,
the worth of an employee that can analyze data as I have mentioned or present a
concept in a flashy way that communicates the heart of the issue to your
customers is staggering. There are
so many tools that your employees could use to make your business grow, become
more productive, and make larger profits, they just need to learn how to use
them.
I
realize there are some problems in getting training. Training classes range from $200 to $1000 per person often
for a single day or sometimes half a day. Usually
you have to go outside of your office for the day to get the training, which
takes a lot of time away from work. When you go to these classes often only part of the material
even applies to you. You usually
have to listen to somebody ask some questions about a business matter that has
nothing to do with how you use the application. Also you have to catch everything in that one class because that is your
only shot. A lot of training
centers used to offer that you could come back and take the class as many times
as you want. They offer this
because not many people take them up on it. If you are an employer you often will watch your well-trained employees
take that knowledge and go somewhere else, so you start all over again. I think because of all these factors nobody is extremely anxious to get
all the training that could benefit them or their employees.
I
have given these concerns a lot of thought and have come up with some ideas that
I believe will greatly change my business. Not every article I write will turn out to be a new service I
provide but hey this is my article and if I don’t use it to sell myself then
what is it all for? I have been
working on training classes for basic and intermediate computer usage. They will cover some Windows functions and some common functionality
between applications. Then they will break down into more detailed functions for
the applications such as Word, Excel, Access, Outlook, Etc. These classes will be available as one-hour sessions once per month.
I have come up with three ways to deliver these classes so that I can
hopefully help the largest number of people possible. The first method will involve me teaching the class in hotels or
convention centers in a few different areas. At each site I will be teaching the class a number of times throughout
the day and they will be available for $30 per person. This will be the type of class for companies or individuals that want to
train between one and 10 people. The
second method will be available for $300, since this class is taught in your
office you can have as many people there as you want. There will be discounts available if 6 months or more are paid in
advance. I believe this addresses a
number of the problems with traditional training. One hour will be enough time to cover relevant data that can be
assimilated and used for the following month and when it is time to learn more
we follow up the next month with the next class. After a year of classes the concepts have a better chance of being
retained. My concept here is that
this be a monthly, fun, educational class, continually updated for the new
features in software and new needs in the marketplace.
I
have also been thinking of a third way to teach the above information to even
more people that need it. The big
class idea may not work for everyone. I
have been testing a product included with Windows called NetMeeting to conduct
training for people through the Internet. This
training will be the same or similar training to the in office training. It will be tailored to a more general audience because my goal is to have
people from many different companies and possibly different states joining
together for training. This
training will only be between $15 and $25 per person for a one-hour class.
Eventually I hope to do this more than once a month and will have
separate tracks for non-standard programs, i.e. not just Word, Excel and
Outlook. This ongoing training will
be an hour long and in this case the employee won’t even have to get up from
their computer.
Along
with training I will use NetMeeting to provide individual workstation support
and personal coaching on applications. Server
support can’t easily be handled through NetMeeting but most workstation
configuration and application support issues can be dealt with. Eventually it is my hope that this type of support can be provided at a
significantly reduced rate, but the idea will have to succeed first.
I
have started off these future-of-computing articles with training because I
believe it is a critical issue in the near future. Keeping up on the features of applications and operating
systems will become increasingly more important soon. It will be important for everybody that uses a computer, not just
technical workers like me. I
believe that so much, I am re-organizing my company to be able to provide these
services at a cost that is certainly affordable by most companies and with the
Internet training I believe affordable by most individuals. You can read everywhere about how people are already loosing jobs due to
the fact that they no longer have the skills to do the job as it is being
redefined. This is only going to
keep happening more. Right now many
people who have 15 years on the job and find themselves at an age of 45 or 50
are being laid off and finding it difficult to get a new job because they
don’t have the technical skills employers are looking for. I think that in the future your job is only good for a couple years based
on what you knew when you got the job. After
that you will need to re-educate to keep your job. I know this isn’t yet true for everyone but increasingly it is becoming
true. Even with the technical
knowledge I have, younger people who know more could replace me. (Of course I keep trying to stay ahead of the game by re-educating
myself) We are all vulnerable and I
believe I can help. This is why I
am trying to provide training that even small companies and individuals can
afford, many people will find themselves without a job and without skills but I
want to do my best to make sure it is not you.
I
hope you consider your own personal need for education and if you are a business
owner or manager the need to get your employees educated. Whether you take advantage of the programs I am offering or not please do
something about educating yourself on IT issues, other issues as well, and do
something to improve yourself. Do
something to learn more about the programs you use. Determine if there are other computer programs you should be using.
Beyond learning about computers remember you can do something to improve
yourself right now. You could start
taking vitamins. You could stop
eating one worthless snack food that is bad for you. You could start walking or start a simple exercise program that involves
resistance training and aerobic training twice a week. You could spend some time with some friends you haven’t seen in a
while. If you can’t quite bring
yourself to do any of that you could read a book about being healthier. If you have already done that try to do something creative, such as an
art class or singing. Take another
step in the right direction, and do it today.
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