We recently sat down with certified leadership coach, Magdalena Blasiak for the very first webinar in our Learning & Development webinar series!

In episode 1, we discuss evidence-based strategies for leaders to build capacity on your non-profit team with 5 simple metaphors. As you’ll see in the recording, metaphors and analogies are an excellent learning tool at any stage of your leadership development, but especially helpful now in these crazy times!

Watch this jam-packed, 30-minute webinar for a frank discussion about concrete strategies you can easily leverage with your non-profit employees, volunteers, board members and other teams.

Some highlights you won’t want to miss:

• 4:05 Why analogies are so useful—and how they help connect new information to something we already know
• 6:58 Why leadership is like a vine growing through a trellis and how your non-profit can inspire leadership with impactful learning
• 10:30 How the brain learns and how your organization can take advantage of it
• 17:50 Why the cadence of learning is critical—and the best learning opportunities to maintain a good rhythm of learning
• 20:00 What the hospital ER teaches us about teaming for innovation
• 24:30 Why “The Campsite Rule” is everything you need to know about leadership and learning and development

The technology adoption process can be overwhelming for non-profit organizations. Where do you start? How can you implement new systems and keep volunteers, staff and donors up to date? And once you pick the right tool, how do you get staff to adopt it?

Below are 5 tried-and-true tactics that I use when working with non-profit organizations on their long-term model for system adoption, whether it’s for a Learning Management System (LMS) or a Constituent Relationship Management system (CRM).

Explain what an LMS or CRM is in clear and simple terms

Recently, I was working with the executive director of an organization who was certain they needed an LMS.

But it turned out they didn’t actually know what an LMS did or how it could be used! So I started asking questions like, are you sure? What do you want to do with it? 

As an Instructional Designer and Learning Technologist, it’s critical to explain what an LMS or CRM system does for non-profit organizations. They might need someone to translate the tech speak so they can figure out how they can make use of the system. Remember, these are employees who were hired for their community outreach skills—they haven’t been hired for their digital know-how.

Employees will be more receptive to adopting a new system if they understand how it helps them be more impactful and efficient.

Make non-profit learning sticky

Learning something new is hard work. For many non-profit organizations, the idea that information should be living, breathing and on something called the Cloud can be a brand new concept (especially for smaller ones or those run by an older generation). 

Here are a few ways to introduce new CRM or LMS technology to non-profit organizations so that it sticks:

• Don’t use the “T word”. The word training can be daunting, so I stay away from it. Instead, call training sessions “working meetings” or “enablement sessions.” People take it very differently. 
• Use fun learning formats. With one of my clients, we played Lingo Bingo. Why? Because there's so much jargon when you work with different LMS systems! What’s a course? What’s a module? What’s a unit? There are ways to make learning new terms fun and interactive.
• Give your system a name. This sounds basic—but it’s one of the most powerful things I’ve done. Work with the organization to crowdsource names that tap into their organizational culture. Let employees vote for their favourite. Help them make the system their own—because unless they call it something they can resonate with, they won’t really care. 

Start non-profit employee learning sooner—not later

Do not wait until the end of an implementation project to start enabling non-profit employees! Achieving adoption for new technology requires communicating with staff early and often. 

Start by giving staff or internal users an idea of what the CRM or LMS is. Bring them into the conversations. Get their input. Show them what it looks like. 

Employees who feel that their voices are heard will be more engaged with the roll-out than those who feel that they aren’t valued throughout the adoption process.

Be sure to incorporate enablement throughout the duration of the implementation and build that learning into employee onboarding.

Get direct access to the executive director or key knowledge holder

Download as much information as you can from the executive director. Because they know everything—they just haven't had time to enter that information.

However, this is usually the biggest barrier to a smooth implementation process. Executive directors have a million things in their head, but it’s not documented anywhere. 

You’ll be far better equipped if you gather answers from the executive director early on. Here are a couple tips for doing so:

• Adapt to their schedule. If you can't get them in regular meetings because they’re too busy or they aren't responding to you, follow them around! This might mean shadowing them, grabbing coffee together, or doing quick interviews in between meetings. Adapting to their schedule will mean you get valuable chunks of time to gather important information.
• Choose your questions wisely. Do not overwhelm them with a laundry list of questions. Draft or build them 2 different options and let them choose what to answer.

​
Bonus points if you can arrange “brain download” sessions with not only the executive director/key knowledge holder, but also together with employees. With everyone part of the same session, it will encourage knowledge transfer between staff.

Adapt corporate resources for non-profit learning

Yes, you can use corporate learning resources and materials for non-profits—but you have to make the translation for them. Otherwise it just doesn't make sense.

There are tons of videos that corporations use that talk about the "bottom line" and “knowing your sales funnel.” But if you show those to a non-profit crowd, it doesn't sit well. But the concepts are good, right?

So use translation pieces. Explain that CRMs come from the world of sales and retail. Explain how they can use it for community outreach. Make the connection. This will really help get buy-in. 

If non-profit employees understand how the CRM or LMS will help them be more productive, they will inevitably feel more open to adopting the technology.

Have more questions about implementing an LMS or CRM at your non profit? Click the button below to contact us today!

I’ve had many clients come to me requesting a Storyline course, but after hearing more about their time or budget constraints and doing a needs analysis, I often recommend Articulate Rise instead.

​Why would I suggest using a rapid course authoring tool like Articulate Rise to develop eLearning deliverables and not the more robust, customizable Storyline?

​The answer is simple: Agility. 

Take this lunch metaphor…

I liken the Rise vs Storyline debate to a business lunch: Sometimes you just need a healthy, but uncomplicated quick lunch at Freshii (where the ingredients are prepared in advance, and you have a menu with set options that are made in front of you while you wait). 

Other occasions might call for a different venue: An artisanal, farm-to-table restaurant where you’re having the chef’s daily tasting menu. You’ll wait longer for your meal, and you’ll pay a lot more, but the seasonal ingredients are more likely to be ethically sourced and prepared with care, elevating your meal from a fuelling necessity to a shared experience.

Here are some of my favourite features of Articulate 360, and Rise in particular:​
​

• Great collaborative tools. It’s easy to use Articulate Review to edit, preview, comment, or solicit feedback from Subject Matter Experts (and easy for SMEs to use, no matter how tech savvy they are).
• Wide selection of kick-ass templates. This is perfect for organizations who are new to online course delivery and who don’t have fully developed templates or eLearning style guides yet.
• Rapid authoring that’s easy to iterate. This is ideal for the budget conscious—or for projects when the content isn’t fully developed yet, or when building a pilot or prototyping project.
• Beautiful and modern. Low effort and access to beautiful stock images in the content library make for a very sexy looking course (that’s mobile responsive too!) The overall layout options don’t look or feel like a “death by PowerPoint” eLearning. The stock assets are also royalty free and plentiful.
• Articulate products are updated frequently. The new Rise scenario blocks are a perfect example of a highly impactful, custom interaction that is quick to build in Rise (a new feature that is well-loved and used by yours truly).
• Internal resources are newer to instructional design and course authoring, and you don’t want to invest. Be sure to read these warnings before you purchase Articulate or Captivate for a brand-new employee or team.
• Rise incorporates Storyline blocks—so you can still create custom content in Storyline where it counts the most, then insert it into a Rise course. Win-win!
• All Rise 360 courses are HTML-5 compatible. (Good-bye, Flash!)

What Canadian organizations need to know about Rise 360

If you’re a public authority, provincially-funded charity, or regulatory body in Canada, a cloud-based eLearning tool like Articulate 360 may NOT be a good fit if:

• You require data storage in Canada. If you’re not sure if USA data storage is a deal-breaker or not, check with your legal or data sovereignty team.
• If your organization has strict policies on cloud-based software in general. You may need to do a Data Privacy Impact Assessment (DPIA) and assess the risks with your IT group. 
• If your organization has particular privacy or data transfer protocols or regulations to follow. (I.e. relative to PIPEDA, PIPA, etc.) 
• If you are designing for accessibility. Rise 360 courses are not compliant with accessibility guidelines—not yet, anyway.

In short, Articulate Rise is the right course authoring tool some of the time. When limited resources or project constraints dictate quick content turnaround, Rise can be more agile than Storyline. If your organization’s requirements pose a barrier to cloud-based tools, then Articulate Rise won’t be a good fit for you. Work with a consultant to leverage other custom course authoring tools instead, and be sure to clearly outline your data management protocols with any external consultant.