00:01Today, basically I will be presenting, and Renee. I am the training sales manager located here in Redlands, California.

00:08And Renee Schreibman is in our Charlotte location and works with our regional and state and local customers…

00:16…working with their staff development plans every day and supporting their training needs.

00:22We also have our other training sales consultants around the room.

00:25Matter of fact, why don't we do that now. If you guys can stand really quick.

00:31We're here to support you, and part of our process down the road, too, we'll have our breakout so…

00:39Yeah. So today really what we're going to talk about is kind of why we chose this as a topic.

00:48One is, you know, as your needs grow and as your demands grow for your GIS, obviously the skills required…

00:54…to accomplish those things grow and are definitely of prior importance to make sure that you hit those objectives that you've got.

01:02And what we've found is a lot of requests from our training sales consultants to provide kind of a guidance for all of the offerings…

01:09…that we have in our training department and really put together a structured plan for you…

01:15…in order to accomplish the goals and needs you have.

01:19So with those requests, we thought, well, this would be a good opportunity for you to actually start the process yourself in this breakout.

01:27So I'm going to talk a little bit about the training planning process and why you really should take the time to plan for your training…

01:33…and then Renee's going to talk about the different components that are involved in the training plan process itself…

01:38…and how it actually works and what you need to do to get it done.

01:43During that time, obviously, we're going to be talking about the different ways that we can help you…

01:47…as you see with the training sales consultants…

01:49…how we can provide that support and guidance that you'll need and probably want during that process.

01:58Then probably the most important part is we're going to break out into small groups and actually start walking through…

02:04…discussing using a worksheet, which we'll cover in a little bit, that will help you to actually start writing down…

02:09…some guidelines and directions for yourself on what you want to do.

02:15So we all understand that people are the power of GIS, or you wouldn't be in this room.

02:21Training wouldn't be of importance to you. I think that's pretty obvious.

02:25However, you know, when you think about Roger Tomlinson's quote…

02:29…I think it's key that without the staff and the appropriate skills and training, you're going to have some difficulties, right?

02:36They touch so many parts of our GIS from design and implementation and specification and adaptation and things like that.

02:46It's so critical that we do spend that time and really focus on the people…

02:50…the staff that are providing all the talent to create the successful GIS.

02:56An interesting statistic is that if you can get 2 percent increase in your productivity…

03:01…from the training efforts that you provide, just that 2 percent can pay for all the training to get there.

03:07It's a very small threshold in order to achieve a great amount of success.

03:12So if you can even achieve higher than that by focusing and putting your efforts on accomplishing your goals…

03:18…you really can see a payoff quickly.

03:24So the value of training we understand is there, but planning for it is another effort.

03:31That's why we're here, right? To talk about it.

03:33But what I'd like to do is kind of…you're going to find that we're interactive; we like to hear from all of you.

03:38So Renee's going to write down some different thoughts I'd like you to speak out about what are some of our challenges?

03:45So what are the things that keep us from necessarily doing the planning in order to set that motion in place?

03:52So who's got some ideas on why we don't plan?

03:58[Audience comment] The software's intuitive. You don't need to get training to use it.

04:06Very good. What else? Why don't we plan? What's stopping us in our daily lives?

04:13[Audience comment] Time.

04:14Okay. Demands of what we've got going on. What else?

04:17[Inaudible audience comment]

04:21So going along with the money, but being able to justify it, right? Why are we going to be doing this?

04:28[Audience comment] Education.

04:31Education…

04:32[Audience comment] Of the people you work with to explain why you need different training.

04:37Okay, so beyond the budget, but why do you even need it?

04:39[Audience comment] They ask what is it, why do we even need training?

04:42Very good. Okay.

04:49[Audience comment] Tying the training to a career path.

04:53Tying the career path?

04:54[Audience comment] How do you make a career path out of the training?

04:57Very good. So development of your staff, and how do I go about doing that, right? Mm-hmm. Yeah?

05:06[Audience comment] First [inaudible] training was get really into the details of the kinds of training.

05:11How do I know what applies, right? Yeah. Mm-hmm.

05:17Or even to that effect, what do I need that applies, right? What skill sets am I trying to develop, right…

05:26…beyond what's out there, but what skill sets should we focus on? Anything else? Yeah?

05:33[Audience comment] Justifying that the technology [inaudible].

05:41Okay.

05:46[Audience comment] We already know what we know. Why would we need to get better?

05:51We're all experts, right?

05:53I missed that one. Can you…

05:55[Audience comment] Why would we need to get better?

05:56We already know what we know. Sure. These are all great things. Any more?

06:04No? We created a list as well, and I think it's pretty close.

06:11Budget, time away from our daily jobs, right, to spend that time and energy.

06:17How do I determine which training is needed, how am I going to get it, who needs what?

06:22One I didn't hear is what if we train them and they leave? Right? That turnover ratio.

06:29You know, how do I know, once I've created the training plan, how do I have these relevant tasks to keep everybody on track?

06:37Right? Once you've already put this in place and said here it is, now what?

06:43And, you know, I really don't know which courses. I can't help understand…

06:47You know, I need help understanding the breadth in offerings and which ones apply to what, right? Specifically.

06:54I think a lot of times when we see these challenges, it's very simple with the pressures that we have…

06:59…and we have jobs that we've got to get done, that we tend to sometimes look at training then as a reactive situation.

07:07And as a reactive, then we're looking at project by project, just-in-time training, right?

07:11Because we've got to just…I can't deal with that. And then as something all of a sudden ends up on our plates…

07:18…we start assessing our skills and our team's skills and saying, Oh, whoa. We need this; we don't need that…

07:24…or I can get Bob or Susie to get that done, but I don't know if they really do.

07:28Then you have to spend all this time when you should be actually accomplishing the task.

07:32You're spending this time project by project assessing everything that you have…

07:37…your staff, you, and your skills that are necessary.

07:41And that takes up a lot of time when you think about it project by project like that.

07:46Then also budgeting becomes an issue because if you're going to do that project by project…

07:53…then you're looking at class by class, and then you're sending in requisite after requisite after requisite…

07:58…and that starts looking like what's going on? Why are we spending this money on training, right?

08:04And instead of having a strategic vision, we're saying, well, just as needs come, I've got to go and fill this and I've got to train for that.

08:13So a lot of times in that reactive space, we tend to just deal with the day-to-day and we get things done.

08:18Does that work? Sure, of course. The reality is we get things done; we're very successful people here.

08:24But at the same time, if you can actually shift that to a proactive approach, you can take the time to really understand…

08:31…and we heard it earlier, how does the training actually fit toward our organizational goals?

08:38What are the larger issues that our organization's trying to accomplish that we're applying basically a geographic approach to…

08:46…and then saying we've got these skills that need to be brought up to par in order to be really successful.

08:52When you start talking in that language, we have a different conversation then.

08:56It's no longer about individual needs; it's about the organization succeeding, right?

09:01At the same time, we also then can start looking, because in most cases with your GIS that you're working on…

09:08…and setting up and implementing and doing all the different phases that you have, you've set up phases, approached, right?

09:15You know that somewhere in the future you're going to take the next step.

09:19You might enter into the world of server, you might add mobile factors, you might be adding web applications…

09:25…to allow citizens to communicate, right? All of these different things are different visions that you have for the future.

09:33And instead of just dealing with them as they come, if we can put together one logical communication that says…

09:39…These are our goals because the organization needs this; we're going to apply our geographic solution…

09:48…and then we can lay out the skills needed, that's a much clearer communication as we talked about justification.

09:56Probably the thing with this that I want to leave most important, which we all know.

10:01No amount of technology is going to be successful without making sure that the people behind it are ready and willing to go, right?

10:09We can have phases all we want, but if we're not bringing the people along with that next phased attempt…

10:15…we're going to feel bottlenecks, we're going to feel kind of a tension…

10:19…kind of an I'm not ready; are you sure we have to do this now kind of mentality, right?

10:26So given that focus, then, now let's talk about instead I'd rather hear some positives instead of our challenges.

10:34What are some of the outcomes? What do you hope to get? Why are you here today? Tell me about that.

10:40What are the outcomes, if you had a training plan, that you feel you could accomplish?

10:44[Audience comment] Yeah, well, in terms of [inaudible] start making a plan, is you get the support ahead of time…

10:50…then you know [inaudible]. It's important to know the whole plan…

10:54…not just start it thinking you're going to get meat in this third course, but to get to that meat means…

11:00…getting the intermediate steps first, you know you should have the support.

11:04Right. Yeah. Very good.

11:10[Inaudible audience comment]

11:15Very good. Yes. Somebody said something up here?

11:20[Audience comment] Retention.

11:21Retention. Very good. I'll have a statistic with that soon.

11:25[Audience comment] Motivation.

11:27Motivation. Very good, yeah.

11:29[Inaudible audience comment]

11:32Um-hmm. Exactly.

11:36[Audience comment] Want to be more successful for his role, so that our organization thrives.

11:41You're going to like our worksheet. What else? What else do you hope to obtain or succeed at when you put together a plan?

11:53[Audience comment] Greater knowledge base for your employees.

11:56Great knowledge base for your employees. Anything else?

12:06[Inaudible audience comment]

12:10Return on investment, right, is what you're saying? Yeah. A clear way to at least communicate that, right?

12:19And hopefully actually receive it too.

12:22[Inaudible audience comment]

12:26Mm-hmm. I like this. You guys are very vocal. I'm enjoying this. Anything else?

12:36[Audience comment] Quantitative [inaudible].

12:39Okay. What's our level of effort, right, over a span of time instead of just incident by incident.

12:55[Audience comment] I'll take my [inaudible] here and have them be the support and the inspiration [inaudible]…

13:01…so I don't have to argue. It's already been done.

13:06So elaborate a little bit about that.

13:08[Unintelligible audience comments]

13:12[Audience comment] …planning and entrenching GIS in an organization in a way that makes our job easier.

13:17Very nice. Relevance, right?

13:22[Audience comment] Being able to promote employees.

13:25Okay. Providing the career path, you mean? Mm-hmm. Got a lot. More?

13:38[Audience comment] Training often is a big morale booster for…

13:43Yeah, a lot of times you're going to find, and then I'll bring out that statistic.

13:46You know, there was a study done with organizations that said, you know, if you spend about 215, -20 dollars a year, right?

13:56Organizations that spent just that little bit had an approximate turnover rate of about 16 percent.

14:02But when they spent just slightly more, $300 a year, they had a decrease by half; 8 percent turnover rate.

14:11It's a very low threshold, once again, to having the people understand and value that you care about them…

14:17…and that there's actually a structure in place to increase their knowledge, make them feel better…

14:22…secure about what they're doing, right?

14:25And that you'll probably end up - and that's some of the things that we've put up on here.

14:30You're going to make sure your staff attends the training; we've talked about that.

14:33We have a budget for training that makes sense, that we can actually lay out in phases and times and actually scheduled events.

14:42A lot of times now, our projects aren't going to be delayed on what we're trying to accomplish…

14:46…because we've already thought about what skills are we deficient in and where do we need to get better…

14:51…and you've started that progress, right?

14:54So a lot of times, these projects that come up, you'll be able to say yes…

14:56…instead of, hmm, I don't know if I've got the staff to really do that.

15:01You can actually feel secure that you've got a plan in place and that these people are going to be on your staff…

15:08…gaining the skills necessary.

15:11You know, we find a lot of times with training plans is that people are able to maximize their training dollars…

15:16…by taking a look at multiple departments within an organization, if you're that large, right?

15:21So a lot of times we've found where departments will be sending people to a training class…

15:27…the same one that another department's sending them to, but at different times. We'll coordinate that.

15:32We have ways that we can coordinate training so that you can save money, have it on-site, things like that, so…

15:39You know, there's different ways to attack that, but the nice thing is, is that you can identify that.

15:44You can lay that out and know that different departments do need this support.

15:50And then also definitely, as we talked about, right away you're going to receive that instant ROI.

15:55Hopefully when your staff comes back from training, they can feel that, they feel empowered.

16:01They're going to probably take on things because they found better workflows to accomplish tasks quicker…

16:08…so now they have time to explore what they maybe didn't do in the past…

16:12…and now they can take on some other ideas, tasks, roles that you might have for them.

16:18Cross-training, all sorts of wonderful things. So.

16:24Well, definitely this is going to be Renee's spot here. We've talked about why we should spend the time.

16:29Now we're going to talk about what is it and how we put it together in a structure and the different components.

16:35Thanks, Michael. So now we're going to dive a little bit deeper into what a GIS training plan is…

16:45…and what you can provide and how you can begin designing your very own GIS training plan.

16:50So before I begin, raise your hand if you've either started or completed your very own training plan for your organization.

17:03Raise your hand high; be proud. Very nice.

17:07Awesome. So when we break out, we're going to heavily rely on you and look for your input and stories of success…

17:14…with the training planning process that you've already accomplished.

17:18So please raise your hand if you've thought about it but haven't really had the time or need to put together a training plan.

17:28I would hope that's the rest of you, right? Even better.

17:32So whether you've thought about it or you haven't done it at all, or you're in desperate need of a training plan…

17:38…you're in the right place, and we're here to help you through every step of that process.

17:42So let's get down to the basics of what is a GIS training plan.

17:47Based on our experience, a GIS training plan is a guide to aligning a synchronized series of relevant training events…

17:57…to your strategic GIS goals. It also includes an action plan for implementing or scheduling the training.

18:05So based on what you currently know, what do you have to have in order to develop a training plan? You can go write it.

18:15So what are going to be your components of a training plan, based on what you already know? Alright.

18:25[Unintelligible audience comment]

18:27Someone say objectives? Yes. Objectives.

18:31[Audience comments] Buy-in. Goals of the company.

18:35Was that buy-in in the back? Yeah. Okay. Goals.

18:39[Audience comment] GIS strategy.

18:41GIS strategy.

18:44[Audience comment] Method of delivery.

18:46Method of delivery.

18:48[[Audience comment] Knowledge of what skills you [inaudible] already.

18:53Yes. Who said that? Awesome. Knowledge of what skills you have already. Yep.

19:04[Inaudible audience comment]

19:09Absolutely. So what about what courses are available or what education is available.

19:19Would you feel that's an important component?

19:22Or roles that you have in your organization and how they relate to courses that are available.

19:32Does anyone else have anything else?

19:34[Inaudible audience comment]

19:39Cost. Great. So now that we've identified what we all feel are components of a training plan…

19:50…which everybody's absolutely correct and actually you've listed almost everything we could've thought of…

19:55…we're going to talk about what Esri can provide to help you through the training plan process.

20:03So developing a GIS training plan, there's a process. So first and foremost, the number one thing based on our experience…

20:11…is you're going to identify personal, project, department, or enterprise GIS goals.

20:17So realize why is it that you're actually developing this training plan, what's its purpose.

20:23The second step is going to be to review and prioritize those goals, prioritize the skills necessary to accomplish those goals…

20:34…and identify the areas that need additional training in order to meet those goals.

20:40I think somebody might've mentioned that.

20:43Next we're going to say analyze that need by aligning Esri courses with job roles of your organization.

20:52And the next step would be to determine what does your staff know and what do they need to know.

21:00And finally, schedule and register for the training that's applicable to what they need to know.

21:06It's definitely critical to success of your organization to review and update a training plan on an annual basis.

21:14And as I mentioned earlier, your Esri training consultant can help you…

21:17…through every single one of these steps within the training plan process.

21:25So based on our experience as training consultants - and that's everybody in the room that's a training consultant…

21:31…we've recognized a training plan consists of several components, and the first one is going to be your training guide.

21:38And what the training guide is going to consist of is courses aligned with roles and responsibilities necessary to fulfill your goals.

21:47So it's going to be your road map; it's going to be your guide. It's your playbook.

21:53Next is going to be a timeline.

21:54So by what date will you need to meet the goals and objectives that are driving this very need for training?

22:03And then lastly, it's going to be your training course worksheet. Well, not lastly. There's one more.

22:07An Excel spreadsheet with the courses necessary to complete objectives associated with individuals and/or roles…

22:16…depending upon the needs of your organization.

22:19And lastly, schedule. So course registrations aligned with those objective milestones.

22:24So we would work with you to help you identify you need to complete this specific knowledge area…

22:31…by this specific date to meet this project objective.

22:36So what we're going to do now is we're going to go through an imaginary training plan…

22:42…and how it evolves through the training plan process.

22:44So imagine if the State of California split, and now we have the State of San Diego.

22:53The first thing that we're going to do, or that they did, in this plan is they sat down and determined…

22:59…what it was that their corporate objectives were and what the GIS components of those corporate objectives were.

23:06Then they aligned the GIS approach to meet the corporate objectives.

23:11So as you can see here, that's exactly what's displayed on the screen.

23:14It's important to create phased goals to meet those corporate objectives.

23:18So in the case of the State of San Diego, the corporate objective was to do more with less and to reduce redundancy.

23:27The GIS department determined that in order to meet the corporate objectives…

23:32…they would need to centralize data management by developing an enterprise geodatabase.

23:38In doing so, they would reduce redundancy - so do more with less - by limiting the resources needed…

23:45…to connect and to manage multiple geodatabases. And in return, that was going to reduce server maintenance costs.

23:53So the next slide is a view of the first page of the training guide which would…

23:58…which in this case includes an executive summary and would do so in your training plan.

24:03And the first paragraph is going to outline exactly what we just talked about.

24:06They require a 10 percent reduction in operating costs.

24:10The GIS department at the state is going to contribute to that goal by doing x.

24:15So that's what the training guide document here consists of.

24:20And this would be the first page of any training plan that you would put together. Go to the next one.

24:28So the next step in a project of this nature is to chart the project milestones in order to prepare for the next steps in the training plan…

24:36…which is aligning Esri training courses to those staff roles.

24:41So at this stage, the training consultant must work with you to identify the roles involved in achieving your goals.

24:49So what do these individuals do? Are they advanced users? Are they desktop users? Do they have experience with [Arc]SDE?

24:56All these things need to be identified during this phase of the training planning process…

25:01…in order to move forward with outlining and selecting GIS training courses.

25:06So the training plan document for the State of San Diego outlines an alignment of Esri's training curriculum…

25:13…with the roles involved in achieving the goals of the organization.

25:17This includes recommended and what we would call supplemental training for each role.

25:23So in the case of the State of San Diego, together with them we identified three roles involved in achieving their goals.

25:33And that's going to be the GIS editor, the GIS database manager, and the systems database administrator.

25:38The next slide is an example of a role included in their training guide for the State of San Diego.

25:47So as you can see here, this includes the recommended training, background training…

25:54…for those that do not have any experience with geodatabases, and can include supplemental or applicable training to the role.

26:03So we have your job; your staff role; a description that was put together as a collaborative effort with the State of San Diego…

26:11…outlining what that role entails; and then there's the recommended courses…

26:15…which are all going to be hyperlinks to the course information on the Esri Training website…

26:21…as well as some background training for those that don't have experience with geodatabases. Go to the next slide.

26:30After the courses are aligned to the job roles, it's important to identify if your staff has the necessary skills to accomplish these goals.

26:38So in this case, the project manager provided us with responsibilities of the job roles…

26:44…and basic information regarding the experience levels of their staff.

26:49So we would rank it on the scale of beginner, intermediate, and expert.

26:55Based on this information, we helped map out their training needs by mapping out the overall effort needed to accomplish their goals.

27:06And here we have the training course worksheet, and this is actually available in template form.

27:11So in this training worksheet, you'll find the Esri training courses along the top axis;…

27:19…the staff roles as well as, in this case, individuals identified that fulfill those staff roles on the left axis;…

27:26…and in the middle, you're going to see a whole bunch of Rs and Ss, which are representing the recommended and supplemental courses.

27:34By completing this worksheet, we were able to get a picture of all of the training their staff needed in order to accomplish the goals.

27:43So this is a collaborative effort on behalf of the State of San Diego and their Esri training consultant to determine…

27:49…where these individuals' skill sets lie and how they aligned with the courses and the objectives that they were going to meet.

27:59So by this point, we've helped you identify your goals, staff roles, and responsibilities.

28:05We've also helped you align courses with these roles, identified staff that fulfill the roles…

28:11…performed a gap analysis in order to meet the goals, and now it's time to implement the training plan.

28:21So here we have our schedule.

28:24In this sample schedule for the State of San Diego, we've identified three key staff members that will need training…

28:31…and when they will need the training in order to meet the project deadline.

28:35So for example, Kelly, she needs to understand relational databases interactions with ArcGIS [for] Server by, I think it was, August 15th.

28:45So this diagram is going to lay out a schedule in which we can help you register for the training classes to meet your goals.

28:54Now that we've walked through the entire training process, I want to emphasize that all of us have worked with large organizations…

29:01…and small organizations, and the level of effort truly does vary based on the size of your organization and the scope of your needs.

29:09The training plan process can take as little as one day for something like the example that we have here today…

29:15…or as long as several months to complete when working with multiple departments.

29:21Alright, so that was a lot of information in a short amount of time.

29:25Does anybody have any burning questions before we move forward?

29:32[Inaudible audience comment]

29:33So we work with you through every step of the process. There's not a process we're completely leaving the ball in your court.

29:39It's completely collaborative effort, so whether it's a one-day effort or a five-month effort, it's…

29:47…you know, you and your training consultant are working together.

29:50So we're never going to say, Here's this training worksheet; go fill it out.

29:53It's, Here's a training worksheet; let's talk about your specific situation. Let's talk about…

29:59We could do it on a department-by-department basis, on an individual basis, but whatever it is that meets those objectives.

30:05We have plenty of time. Any other questions? Yes.

30:10[Audience question] Is there a cost associated with that?

30:12With the training planning process? Yeah. No, I'm free. You just have to buy training. I'm kidding.

30:19No, training consultation is available for you.

30:24We are here to help; we want to make sure that you're successful and that you're ultimately getting the training that you need.

30:29And that's our number one priority and our number one goal.

30:31We want you to be successful in your roles, in your jobs, with the software.

30:36And we also ultimately want you to meet the objectives of your enterprise.

30:43Any other questions? Alright, I'm going to pass it back to Michael.

30:49So definitely in true Esri fashion, it's time for us all to collaborate.

30:52So a little bit different than what Jack does at the beginning and have us all meet and turn around and shake hands…

30:58…we are going to go ahead and group together and actually start walking through this process.

31:03We do have a worksheet that you will get, and the first side is just basically once again kind of talking about…

31:12In each of these groups, our consultants are going to talk about is it a project-, department-, enterprise-level plan?

31:18There's also personal, individual plans, but for the purposes of today, we're talking about departmental or project…

31:25…right, involving several people at least. So..,

31:29We definitely on the backside are going to start walking and talking about the goals…

31:33…and how we provide relevance to what we're trying to accomplish. We talked about that earlier as well.

31:39How do we actually say that what we want to accomplish is going to achieve a greater goal than just…

31:45…"I need to get this up 'cause it's cool." Right? Or, "My staff needs it just because."

31:50Well, no. We really truly want to meet the goals of the organization.

31:53This will help you to describe and lay that out.

31:56If we can, we'll get to that next level and start talking about the roles and skill sets needed…

32:01…and then basically start talking about where is that gap of knowledge within your organization.

32:06So we'll break up. I think, training consultants, if you want to stand up and we'll just kind of start grouping around as best we can.

32:14And this will be a collaborative effort. They will definitely ask for participation, so you can talk and discuss as we go.

32:30Well, I have to say, everyone, thank you very, very much. I love the collaboration in the room.

32:35The energy's exciting. I appreciate everyone sharing and talking and bringing their own stories to this group…

32:42…so we can all learn from each other.

32:45Definitely, hopefully, this has been a great process for you, and if you've enjoyed this so far…

32:50…our training consultants are available to keep and continue this process for you.

32:55We will be here for a little bit if you'd like to come in and talk to us further.

32:59And Renee's card's up here; my card's up here, and our general kind of just training card is up here as well…

33:06…so that you can get in touch with your particular training consultant.

33:09We all cover different regions among the United States.

33:13Please also remember to complete your session evaluations, and that's at esri.com/sessionevals.

33:21So were there any other questions that came up that I can answer really quick before our time is done? No? Felt good?

33:29Then I really appreciate all of you coming today and really sharing about training and participating in all of this…

33:35…and getting yourselves ready to start creating a plan and putting that staff development plan together…

33:41…and seeing yourselves succeed as an organization.

33:43So thank you very much.