New DOD Podcast!

Understanding the Related Costs and Certifications of U.S. Department of Defense Directive 8570.1—M

The DoD’s 8570.1 Initiative is the blueprint for the mandatory training, certifying and managing of an Information Assurance (IA) workforce that will protect the DoD’s crtical information systems and infrastructure. A must-read for anyone affected by this far-reaching, deadline-sensitive program.

http://www.learningtree.com/info/white-papers.htm

If you have government accounts, you should learn as much about this topic as possible and explore ways to exploit the need in your region.

Feeling Stressed? I can't help you but maybe HR Can.

Stomp Out Your Stress!

Stress. What is it? How do we take control of it in our busy lives? 45% of you who participated in HR’s Wellness Survey a couple of weeks ago said you would benefit from a seminar on Stress Management. As a result and as part of our “Stomp Out Your Stress” Week, Learning Tree is sponsoring a Live’n’Learn Seminar (through our EAP) on Stress Management.

The event will take place on Wednesday, August 27 from 12:00pm to 1:00pm in the Large Conference Room. A sign up sheet will be posted outside the large conference room. It is limited to 35 participants.

So come out to Learning Tree's first Live'n'Learn. Lunch will be provided.

PS - Remote folks are more than welcome to attend via conference line.

15 Personal Skills You Need on the Job

From Training Magazine


Employers are looking for workers who have that special something: the skills, tendencies and attributes that help to keep productivity—and
profits—up.

What are they? Businesses are looking for employees with strong "personal" skills, according to ACT research. Keep these in mind, because employers
certainly are.


Carefulness: Do you have a tendency to think and plan carefully before acting? This helps with reducing the chance for costly errors, as well as keeping a steady workflow goin

Cooperation: Willingness to engage in interpersonal work situations is very important in the workplace.

Creativity: You've heard of "thinking outside the box"? Employers want innovative people who bring a fresh perspective.

Discipline: This includes the ability to keep on task and complete projects without becoming distracted or bored.

Drive: Businesses want employees who have high aspiration levels and work hard to achieve goals.

Good attitude: This has been shown to predict counterproductive work behaviors, job performance and theft.

Goodwill: This is a tendency to believe others are well-intentioned.

Influence: Groups need strong leaders to guide the way. Influence includes a tendency to positively impact social situations by speaking your mind and becoming a group leader.

Optimism: A positive attitude goes a long way toward productivity.

Order: "Where did I put that?" A tendency to be well organized helps employees to work without major distractions or "roadblocks."

Safe work behaviors: Employers want people who avoid work-related accidents and unnecessary risk-taking in a work environment.

Savvy: This isn't just about job knowledge, but knowledge of coworkers and the working environment. It includes a tendency to read other people's motives from observed behavior and use this information to guide one's thinking and action.

Sociability: How much you enjoy interacting with coworkers affects how well you work with them.

Stability: This means a tendency to maintain composure and rationality in stressful work situations.

Vigor: This is a tendency to keep a rapid tempo and keep busy.

0811 Bulk Sales Pages - A Sneak Peak

**Subject to change but here are a few highlights I expect to see**

NEW! Learning Tree Courses Available in the San Francisco Bay Area

Professionals in the San Francisco Bay area can now experience
Learning Tree’s Quality Training closer to home. Choose from our wide
selection of courses at convenient SF Bay locations easily accessible
via private or public transportation.
➤ Visit www.learningtree.com for an up-to-date schedule and locations


NEW! Premium Pass! 4 courses within 24 months!

Learning Tree’s NEW Premium Pass gives individuals more time to
take more courses while saving more money! Here’s how: You can take
4 courses within 24 months for as little as $1,700 per course—and at a
price of only $6,790, you can SAVE as much as $1,390 per course.

Use the Premium Pass to boost your expertise in a specific area, take a range of courses, or apply it towards a Learning Tree Certification Program!
So many options...and so much more time!
➤ See page 211 for details on the Premium Pass and all our money-saving programs

Success for any organization in today’s working world depends on how effectively its leaders can motivate and inspire employees to continuously strive for excellence. In order to accomplish that, leaders must be highly effective themselves and equip their staff with the skills they need to optimize their productivity and performance.

That’s why I’d like to share with you our Learning Tree White Paper series, "Leadership Success: Behaviors, Competencies and Responsibilities that Produce Positive Results."

In this three-part series, James L. Haner, business consultant and certified PMP, details the methodology and benefits of the Behaviors, Competencies and Responsibilities (BCR) approach to leadership.

Part 1: Behaviors

The first White Paper in the series focuses on the behavioral aspects that successful managers have incorporated into their leadership style to motivate and inspire their staff. Included are chapters on embracing integrity, building trust, working with differences and establishing a "servant-leadership" role. Download online.

Part 2: Competencies

Part Two of the series addresses the competencies that effective managers should acquire in order to ensure their success as leaders. Specifically, these include collaborative communication, effective decision-making and employing Emotional Intelligence (EI). Download online.

Part 3: Responsibilities

The third and final installment of the "Leadership Success" series concludes with an overview of the responsibilities managers need to embrace as part of the BCR approach to successful leadership. Included are chapters on coaching, aligning visions and goals, and managing change. Download online.

Don't Forget About the TDP!

We only get a few shots at this a year. The 10-Day pass is the most popular individual program we have to sell so let's sell the shit out of it.

Our message needs to be tight. Here's my take on it:

• For every regular enrollment you should be qualifying a need and pitching the program as an up-sell. The promo just makes it easier to pitch and close.

• You need to properly explain how the 10-Day Pass works and the value the customer gets from it. Take the time to explain the 10 days and walk through the math with the customer. If you get behind the product and sell the value with confidence, there is nothing but up upside for the customer. It's a no-brainer from a dollar perspective.

• Don't be afraid to ask. In life, you only get what you ask for and we need every one of these we can get our hands on.
  

Phone Protocols - We're all in this thing together...

Please don't take advantage of a huge benefit.

It has been awhile since we've reviewed our phone protocols. Here's a quick refresh of our expectations:

• As soon as you arrive, log into your phone.

• When at your desk, it is expected that your are in a "ready" state. Our customers come first. It's the reason why we implemented rollovers 3 years ago. That being said, if the call comes in to your line we expect you to handle it. The Inbound Team is not our secretary. They are here to help by handling the overflow calls, not field every incoming Outbound call. Your customers are calling YOU for a reason.

• When you're away from your desk (break, meeting, lunch, bathroom, etc.) make sure to set your phone on "not ready". We don't want out customers hanging around in phone system limbo.

• Before leaving for the day, log out of your phone. We still have the potential for overflow INBO calls as the day wears on due to staffing levels. If you're not here, but your phone is still logged on the customer will be trapped in our hold system. That's not a good customer experience.

Why We LOVE Course 989!

Digital Tags Aim to Ease Data Searches

By Anne Kates Smith Kiplinger's Personal Finance
Sunday, August 10, 2008; Page F03

The Securities and Exchange Commission plans to throw investment sleuths a very big bone. The agency wants to require publicly traded companies, starting early next year, to file financial data in an interactive format that makes it easier to search and compare key financial figures.

Within two years, most public companies would be required to attach digital tags to data points such as earnings per share, dividends and operating profits. Mutual funds would start filing risk, return and cost data, plus other numbers, in the new, interactive language -- called extensible business reporting language, or XBRL -- by the end of 2009.

The SEC has a pilot program for funds and companies to file information in XBRL (see it at http://www.sec.gov/spotlight/xbrl/xbrlwebapp.shtml). You can set up digital feeds to capture company or mutual fund filings for three dozen companies and about 20 mutual funds so far.

Check Out Boston!

Learning Tree brings the courses you need to your region. Our Boston location in the Waltham area is within easy access of I-95 and Route 128 and only 25 minutes from downtown Boston.

ITIL v3 Intermediate Exams: Change in Pass Score

Summary
The Examination Panel for ITIL v3 has determined that the pass score for the ITIL v3 Intermediate exams will be 70% (28 out of 40), not 65% as previously published.

Exam Details
The exams consist of eight multiple-choice, scenario-based and gradient-scored questions.
Each question will have four possible answer options:
- One option is correct and will receive 5 marks
- One option is partially correct and will receive 3 marks
- One option is the least correct and will receive 1 mark
- One option is incorrect and will receive 0 marks
Candidates have 90 minutes to take the exam in one's native language. Candidates sitting the exam in a language other than their first language have 120 minutes and use of a dictionary.
Candidates must possess the ITIL v3 Foundation or v2-v3 Foundation Bridge Certificate and must have completed an accredited training course to take the exam.
The exams are supervised and closed book.
The distinction score will be agreed upon following Stage 2 of the Pilot Exams

Affected Courses
The change in the pass score affects the following courses:
991: ITIL® v3 Intermediate Qualification: Service Operation
992: ITIL ® v3 Intermediate Qualification: Service Transition
993: ITIL ® v3 Intermediate Qualification: Service Design
994: ITIL ® v3 Intermediate Qualification: Continual Service Improvement
995: ITIL® v3 Intermediate Qualification: Operational Support and Analysis
996: ITIL® v3 Intermediate Qualification: Release, Control and Validation
997: ITIL® v3 Intermediate Qualification: Planning, Protection and Optimization
998: ITIL® v3 Intermediate Qualification: Service Offerings and Agreement

Take advantage of the training you need where you need it. Enroll by September 30 and you can save 20% on any course scheduled in Dallas!

New White Paper!

Successful Business Analysts: How They Avoid the Five Most Common BA Mistakes

Business analysts are increasingly becoming the critical liasons between business and solution development (oftentimes IT), so they must communicate and relate with equal effectiveness throughout all levels of an organization. This White Paper identifies five common obstacles business analysts face and how to adress them to ensure success.

http://www.learningtree.com/info/white-papers.htm

Kind words from Nick

Hello,

Today is the 34th anniversary of the founding of Learning Tree International.

Today, in 1974, Dr. David Collins and Eric Garen established a company with the purpose of helping engineers and technical professionals understand and develop the ability to apply information technology to their jobs. The first Learning Tree courses focused on how to program microprocessors--and were, of course, hands-on.

From the company that David and Eric started in a spare bedroom, Learning Tree has grown over the past 34 years to become the world's leading vendor-independent provider of training for managers and IT professionals. During our 34 years, we have trained nearly 1.9 million employees from more than 65,000 organizations worldwide. From the first courses on microprocessor programming, our course library of IT and management titles has grown to 219 titles advertised in our September U.S. catalogs. In the past year, we have trained more than 90,000 people in more than 40 countries.

Our company culture and our dedication to our customers are even more important than the raw numbers regarding our business growth--in fact, they are the real reason for our success. During our 34 years we have cultivated and nurtured a commitment to excellence in serving our customers--providing the highest possible quality of training to ensure that the participants in our courses acquire the knowledge and skills they need to become more effective on the job. Our commitment to excellence extends far beyond the classroom, however--we are committed to providing the best possible service to our customers in everything we say and do. Those commitments are rooted in key aspects of our culture which defined Learning Tree at the start, and continue to define Learning Tree today:

-- Absolute honesty, which is an essential ingredient in any trusting business relationship, be that relationship with customers or among our staff members
-- Fairness--we strive to be fair, by ensuring that our customers receive services whose value exceeds the price we charge, and by shunning "self-dealing" (acts where we are looking out for ourselves and nobody else)
-- Openness of communication--direct, clear, fact-based communication between any and all individuals in the company, regardless of position or title

It is rare for the principles of companies to stand the tests of time and economic pressure--but we continue to pass those tests at Learning Tree year after year. I am extremely proud to be a part of Learning Tree, and I hope you are too.

So, Happy Anniversary to Learning Tree, and to us all! Thank you for everything you do for Learning Tree, and for our customers.

Regards,

Nick Schacht
President and Chief Executive Officer

TELL EVERYONE! Learning Tree’s latest installment in its Meet the Expert podcast series explores one of IT’s hottest trends: Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA). Listen in as our expert, business-to-business SOA consultant and Web Wrights founder Mike Way, answers questions regarding SOA, its benefits and hot-button topics such as the use of BPEL and XML languages, “code-first vs. contract-first” and the impact of SOA on an organization. Listen in as our expert, business-to-business SOA consultant and Web Wrights founder Mike Way, answers questions regarding SOA, its benefits and hot-button topics such as the use of BPEL and XML languages, “code-first vs. contract-first” and the impact of SOA on an organization. In addition, you can also download a no-cost copy of the companion Learning Tree White Paper, Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA): From Introduction through Implementation, also authored by Mike Way. Don’t miss this insightful discussion on one of IT’s hottest topics! Get your complimentary download here of our Meet the Expert podcast, Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA): IT Fad or IT Future?

Team Shenal has officially gone global (more like domestically dispersed but my resume will say global - zing!). With team members now outside of our Reston office, it's imperative that we make an effort to stay increasingly connected. Having said that, one of the things I have decided to do is start this blog. This will be a challenge for me because I would never do something like this for personal use. Never thought of myself as a big "blogger" but after some thought, I believe that it is one way to stay informed no matter where you are physically located.

Think of this as the new information portal for our team. My goals are to begin organizing all the valuable information that is disseminated internally each day in the office, share information about our industry, gain ongoing insight from each of you about any number of topics and bring a little office lifestyle to those that can't share it with us daily. This isn't meant to replace any of the things we are already doing but rather supplement them. We are all in this thing together - whether you are 5 feet from me or 500 miles away.

So, for all those of you that delete my pearls of wisdom from your email, you will now have a second chance. If anyone has ideas about what would be valuable to post, share or archive, let me know. The more involved you are the better.

JFS