It’s easy to see “mobile learning” as the cool, cutting edge must-have training because, well, everybody loves it and has to have it. It’s technology. It’s cool. It’s popular. But it’s sort of like Kim Kardashian or Paris Hilton; famous for being famous, not for any accomplishments.

Mobile training is all-too-often trendy simply because it’s trendy, not because it actually helps accomplish training goals.

But when you look past the trendiness, you’ll find that mobile platforms actually have some very useful applications for training and development. The key is to use the tools for what they do well rather than force fitting traditional training and development into the tools.

Let’s start with the biggest weakness of the mobile phone: the small screens (we’ll discuss tablets in a future blog). Most people have a mobile phone – even a smartphone – but you can’t effectively deliver a traditional course using a phone. If you’re converting an eight-hour course or even a 20-minute eLearning for mobile delivery, you’re wasting time and money.

Mobile platforms, on the other hand, make a perfect complement to training. The smartphone (the Zsa Zsa Gabor of famous-for-being-famous mobile learning tools) can provide quick access to what’s been taught – everything from a course summary to an operations manual.

It’s also perfect for updates and tips. You can get information lickety-split to as many people as you want with a few quick key strokes. If you’ve just spent days training your sales team, you can then follow up with daily tips to them and their managers, reinforcing what was taught and introducing new insights and information like product features, sales specials, etc.

Phones are also great for delivering short (emphasis on short) videos and podcasts to encourage, motivate, inspire or inform a broad audience.

The rush to create mobile training products has produced an industry full of Kardashians, Hiltons and Gabors. Look for something different – something that actually accomplishes your goals, something that actually earns its fame. We think we have it in the Anywhere Learner Mobile application. Think Marlon Brando, Bette Davis, Johnny Depp, Katharine Hepburn, Meryl Streep, Anthony Hopkins, Chris Farley … OK, maybe not Chris Farley. But who doesn’t love Tommy Boy?

As with great and not-so-great actors, you need to see for yourself. Check out our mobile training app.

Few things in life are more rewarding than helping people reach their potential. Imagine the contributions people could make in an organization that developed everybody. Imagine the fun and fulfillment everyone would experience. Imagine how competitive an organization like that could be! It would be amazing, right?

It’s no secret that the right training and development improves productivity. Why isn’t every company choosing to develop their entire workforce? Why does training tend to be targeted to a small group of top-level management or those employees with “opportunity” areas?

Unfortunately, reality often gets in the way. From our experience – and keep in mind that we have a stated goal of helping companies develop everybody – we’ve identified the following as the most common barriers to reaching the masses with quality training:

1. The time barrier. There’s work that needs to get done – now! It’s hard to find the time when you’re constantly pressed from all sides by the tyranny of the urgent.
2. The money barrier. Good training is expensive and your financial resources are limited, especially given the difficult economic times of the last several years.
3. The quality barrier. Training frequently falls short of producing the results you need – unless you pay more (see number 2). Even then, expensive training that’s instructionally sound can come across lifeless and, therefore, ineffective.

When it comes to training, we see these challenges as mountains to climb – or go around … or tunnel through … or fly over. You get the idea. Our goal is to make training ridiculously inexpensive and broadly deployable without sacrificing quality. We came up with the tagline Develop Everybody™ because it so accurately describes what we believe our products do; it’s also what we’re passionate about.

The ability to Develop Everybody™ fills a real need in the marketplace. Organizations that want to stay competitive can’t afford to limit development to an elite few. They need to deploy assessment tools and training more broadly. We want to help them get over, around, or through that mountain.

Here are a few examples of how we’re doing that with our off-the-shelf products. By:

• Using the accessibility and design capabilities of the web to create 360-degree assessment and performance evaluation tools that are beautiful and easy-to-use.
• Taking advantage of mobile technology to deliver custom training content anywhere – so people can apply it on the job.
• Creating engaging eLearnings to drive organizational progress and business growth.
• Using the tablet to deliver a highly interactive eBook that teaches people how to improve business relationships.

Of course none of that matters if our products aren’t affordable. That’s why we relentlessly identify and drive out costs without sacrificing quality. This allows us to offer our products to you for low, low prices.

In short, the key to making these tools accessible to everybody is that they are affordable and easy to use. To maximize the impact, we make them entertaining, engaging and relevant. That way we can fulfill our promise to help companies Develop Everybody™. That gets us out of bed in the morning. That gets us excited. It’s our raison d’être.

What’s so great about working for SVI?  Meet Catherine Wright and check out why SVIers love working here and how that makes a difference in the work that we do for our clients.

Sonny Weems isn’t exactly a household name in the world of basketball, but those of us in Arkansas remember him as a high-flying Razorback hoopster who could bring down the house (or gym) with his artistic and powerful dunks. He also has a sizable following in Lithuania, where he recently won that country’s pro league’s dunk contest in impressive fashion.

He dunked behind his back. He bounced the ball, then caught it and reverse dunked. He bounced the ball, caught it, passed it between his legs and then slammed it. And he jumped from the free-throw line and stuffed the ball through the hoop. Frankly, it was much more impressive than anything seen in this year’s NBA All-Star dunk contest.

Admit it: You want to see the video of Sunny dunking.

So to justify the fact that I watched it while at work and to give you an excuse for watching it now, here are some legitimate lessons on leadership and training that we can glean from athletics in general and from Sonny the Dunker in particular.

1. The dream matters. Weems wasn’t drafted into the NBA. He signed as a free agent and played for the Denver Nuggets and Toronto Raptors. When the NBA started this season with a strike, Weems took off for Europe and signed with the BC Zalgiris in Lithuania. You have to love what you do if you’re willing to do it in Lithuania. By the way, Sonny earned about $2,000 for winning the dunk contest, and the prize for winning the Most Impressive Player award at the all-star weekend was a refrigerator. I suspect those incentives weren’t the driving forces in his performances. Does your dream matter in your daily work? Do you inspire others with training that helps them identify and fulfill their dreams? That’s one of our goals at SVI.
2. The talent matters. Most of us can’t jump as high or as far as Sonny Weems, not even with the aid of a trampoline. But I’m guessing Sonny can’t devise a marketing plan for frozen chicken, or break down the U.S. tax code, or diagnose a sick child, or figure out what brands of cereal deserve shelf space in a retail outlet. We all have natural gifts and talents – strengths we should tap into so that we can excel as we pursue our dreams. Talent management helps us identify those talents and make the most of them.
3. The practice matters. Do you think the Lithuanian dunk contest was the first time Sonny ran the length of the court and leaped from the free-throw line to attempt a dunk? No, he dreamed of that shot as a child growing up in West Memphis, Ark., and he missed it dozens of times before making it and dozens more times before making it consistently. Successful athletes understand the value of hard work and practice. We want and need training that’s engaging and fun, but it has to challenge and push us. And it can’t end in a classroom. It has to be practiced to be perfected.
4. The environment matters. Even though I haven’t spoken to Sonny in several years, I’m confident in saying he wants to play in the NBA, not in Lithuania. Sometimes we work in great conditions, and sometime we don’t. We have to make the most of our work wherever we are, and sometimes that takes us off the beaten path to bring us back to the highway. Sonny had to leave his comfort zone to follow his dream. In work, we often have to leave our comfort zones. Training and talent management need to account for the fact we aren’t always cruising down a highway with no competing traffic. We have to deal with the curves and the traffic, and occasionally we have to veer off-road. Heck, we might even have to go to Lithuania.
   
   

That’s four observations to provide value for you in your work, one for each minute of the video you can now watch guilt-free. Enjoy.

Now that you’ve rung in another New Year and returned to a more normal routine, the goals and resolutions you made can begin to take a back seat to the realities of daily life. The carrot sticks were OK for a few days, but it’s just too hard to say no to those chocolate chip cookies, right? The demands on the job can quickly distract you from your professional goals so they become equally challenging to achieve. When it comes to setting goals, there’s an endless list of resources to help you. The trick is actually achieving them. If you’re inclined to set goals, I doubt you do so without intentions to make them happen. But those little things called obstacles – I like to call them challenges – pop up when you least need or expect them.

If you’re like me, you set some goals you know you’ll achieve. Writing them just gives you clarity about what you want the achievement to look like. Those are the “cruise” goals.

Then there are goals that stretch you; but if you keep them in front of you and create a plan, you’re pretty confident you can accomplish them (losing weight, staying on an exercise regimen, becoming more of a strategic partner in your business). Those are the “high gear” goals.

And then there are the “jet engine” goals. These get written and rewritten year after year. The only difference a new year brings is that it gives you another 12 months to figure it out and hope for new insight, a revelation or a miracle.

Do you know people who regularly seem to accomplish what you would consider “jet engine” goals? What do they do differently?

Here are some recommendations for bringing those “jet engine” goals within reach.

1. Believe you can. Belief is an amazing catalyst for uncovering the ideas, resources and tools you need to achieve your goals. And when you don’t believe, it’s amazing how you can be blinded to those same things. All of us have room to grow when it comes to our mindset, and the more we grow here, the more unstoppable we become.
2. Take up journaling. There are some great books that provide techniques for journaling. One of my favorite is The Artist’s Way. It explains how to get all the gunk out of your head first thing each morning so you can clear the way for creative thinking. It’s not just for artists – and there are many types of “art” in life.
3. Connect with a mentor or coach. Connect with one of those people you know who is achieving the jet engine goals and ask that person to mentor you. Learn how that person thinks, makes decisions and plans differently from others. Then identify ways you can change and grow from what you learn.
4. Persevere. It will take mindset shifting, habit changing, plan writing and execution. Remember, you are stretching yourself beyond your normal stretch goals so you are going to trip up. It’s like learning to ride a bike, roller skate or hang-glide. You are going to get some bruises. Only this time it won’t be your knees – it’ll be your ego. But the recovery is the same. Brush yourself off and try again.

Those are four simple things you can keep in mind to achieve more this year. Pick one area to work in and see what happens. Go ahead. Make 2012 the year for huge growth and big accomplishments in your career and in your life.