Continuing Education for Technical Professionals

   THE LEARNING PROFESSIONAL

                                                                 Career Advancement Tips

                                                                                                      Volume 4, Issue 1

In This Issue:

AuxTips^TM

The Negotiation Mentor

Tips from Preston Michie about "Opening Offers."

Transitions Create Need for Knowledge Transfer

Steve Trautman talks about effective and efficient knowledge transfer methods.

Technical Writing: Doomed from the Start?

Susan's tips for making written technical material more interesting to the reader.

QuickQuotes

A few quotes about persistence, optimism, and problem solving.

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AuxTips^TM

Quick tips you can start implementing immediately.

Tip1

Many of our clients tell us they are too busy or not interested in reading books related to professional development.  Find the time to read books.  A good book is a resource that usually contains valuable information you won't find anywhere else.

Tip2

Manager involvement and employee accountability are essential for getting the most out of employee training.  Managers must understand the key takeaways from training sessions, and support their employees in achieving related goals.  Employees need to create specific action steps related to those key takeaways, and set timelines for completing each step.  This applies to professionals at all levels—even executives.

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The Negotiation Mentor

Tips from Preston Michie, Principal, Team Soup, LLC

Opening Offers

One of the issues that comes up in my negotiation training seminars is who should open?  There is a perception that she who opens first loses.  I don’t buy that logic.

Yes, making the first offer entails risk—you might leave something on the table.  You think, “I’d better let the other side open first to gain some information about where they are.”  This is a sound strategy.  But sometimes the other side is thinking exactly the same thing.  The result?  Stalemate as the two sides wait for the other side to open.  You may have to move first to break the stalemate if you want a deal.  What can you do? 

Recognize that there are several purposes of an opening offer.  By throwing out an offer you do not expect to be accepted, you signal a willingness to negotiate.  You might attempt to steal a good deal by advancing an extreme offer in hopes the other side simply doesn’t want to negotiate for some reason.  Your opening offer can anchor the other side in your price range.  Finally, your opening can establish a position from which you concede slowly to create the perception that the other side is creating value by getting you to concede. 

Turn the stalemate to your advantage by making an opening offer to achieve one of these purposes.  Understanding your purpose in making an opening offer can help you decide how to break the stalemate. 

If all else fails, throw out an offer you do not expect to be accepted to signal a willingness to engage—then carefully monitor how the other side responds to gain information about their true position and plan your next move.

Courses that build negotiation skills:

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Transitions Create Need for Knowledge Transfer

by Steve Trautman, President, Solution Strategies, Inc.          Read Full Text

(An excerpt from Steve's book coming out in July, Teach What You Know:  A Practical Leader's Guide to Knowledge Transfer and Peer Mentoring)

At the heart of every transition there are people - people who know (I call them peer mentors) and people who need to know (the apprentices).  Everyone falls into one of these categories, and depending on the moment, they might even flop back and forth from one to the other. Trouble is that much of this is never really spelled out.  Sometimes people are clear about their role as expert and trainer and often they’re not.  Sometimes they know that they should teach but don’t know how.  Sometimes they know how but don’t want to.  Sometimes they’re the apprentice and need to learn but aren’t even aware of it… You get the idea.  The opportunity for confusion is real.

How organizations understand this issue in the trenches as well as from the top down has a profound impact on how smoothly the transition goes.  Here are some examples of common transitions.  As you read through the list, tick off how many of them you’re facing today:

• New technology (such as introducing a new knowledge base or a new customer relations management system) where some people get more training and have to bring back their new skills to the larger organization.

• Reorganizations where new teams are forming and people are transitioning from one part of the company to another so they have to get up to speed as well as hand off their old responsibilities.

• Recent hires of employees, contractors, vendors, partner companies, or interns. 

• Mergers and acquisitions.

• New process or product launch or new customer requiring a newly formed project team to focus on meeting some new objective.

• Recent layoffs where remaining folks have to pick up work of those who left.

• Aging workforce begins retiring before they can fully train others on what they know.

• Business changes requiring cross-training to improve flexibility.

• Outsourcing requires having to partner offshore.

• New physical space for offices or production.

• New markets, products and customers.

Throughout any transition, there is much information that must be known.  Think of all the skills, processes, standards, tools, templates, policies, success metrics, and requirements that must be known in your department or organization – big or small.  These are actually the easy ones because they can be seen and done within tight parameters.  What about all of the other information that must be known like history, tribal knowledge, collaborative team issues, customer issues, culture and communication strategies?  These are all much more amorphous and loose.  How do people get to know them?  Click here to read the complete article.

Steve's Peer Mentoring Workshop can be scheduled privately at your facility, and is also coming soon to locations in California and Texas:

Anaheim, CA - April 5, June 7 (Instructor: Steve Trautman)

San Jose, CA - March 29, June 6 (Instructor: Steve Trautman)

Austin, TX - March 31, June 1 (Instructor: Stacey Dickinson)

Houston, TX - March 29, June 2 (Instructor: Stacey Dickinson)

Contact us to register and for more information about peer mentoring and knowledge transfer methods.

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Technical Writing: Doomed from the Start?

by Susan de la Vergne, Principal, Alder Business Services

One of the reasons technical people dread “writing things down” is that their intended readers expect them to write something boring.  No phrase inspires more yawns than “technical documentation.”  And who wants to spend any time creating something no one will read because they simply assume it’s dull?  Not me.  Probably not you either.

But technical professionals actually have the opportunity to write fascinating stuff.  Product evaluations, design materials, strategy documents, proposals, test plans – the possibilities are many.  All that’s needed is to find a “voice” – that is, how you sound in writing – that’s as fascinating and inviting as the subject itself.

One easy way to spice up the narrative is to use a bit of story-telling along the way.  As Jack Canfield, the mastermind behind the Chicken Soup for the Soul series, says, “Facts tell, stories sell.”  He’s right, of course, and while you might not think you’re trying to sell what you’ve written, you may be trying to sell your reader on what you have to say.  Buy my product!  Choose the option I like!  Get as excited about this thing as I am! 

Consider how you might use story-telling in your own writing at work.  In a proposal, perhaps: 

“A customer told us he held the product in his hand and thought ‘How great this is!’ and how much he’d like to buy two, one for his wife.”

This personalizes the experience with the product, zooming in on a moment between man and a bit of technology you’re trying to help someone else envision.

How about a product evaluation that includes:

“I followed the installation instructions to the letter, but when I’d completed all the rewiring, I had nothing but a dark panel in front of me.  No lights, no music.  Not a ripple.  The instructions are flawed or the product is.  I recommend against this product selection.”

There’s no reason that written technical material has to be dull, given the many options and intricacies as it presents.  Engineers just need to let their experiences infuse the documentation. 

People like to read about what happens to people, and the intersection of man and machine is no exception.

Check into Business Writing for Technical Professionals to find out more.

QuickQuotes

"Persistence is what makes the impossible possible, the possible likely and the likely definite."
~Robert Half

"An optimist sees an opportunity in every calamity; a pessimist a calamity in every opportunity."
~Winston Churchill

"Before it can be solved, a problem must be clearly stated and defined."
~William Feather

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