May 26, 2016, Dolly Oberoi, CEO, C² Technologies

Being a successful  trusted partner and consultant offers a wide range of opportunities. You must wear many hats from the very beginning and invest a great deal of time, effort, and dedication to reap the rewards. The good news is that there are 5 tips that can help you achieve success in the long-term

1. Identify your niche. 
   Every professional has unique talents, strengths, and abilities. To be a successful consultant you must identify what these traits are and then figure out how you can carve out a niche, or fit into an existing one.

• You must be able to determine how your skills and knowledge translate into solutions.
• Clients are looking for consultants who can provide specialized services, such as identifying gaps in their current program or analyzing their Big Data to create effective eLearning activities or connecting the dots for them with the latest trends in industry and technologies
• You have to be aware of what you bring to the table and how you can meet their needs.
• Constantly research, read and stay abreast of trends, innovations and issues impacting your clients.
• Identify any gaps in the market and see if your talents can fill them, or do some research to figure out which niches experience continual success.

2. Research the competition. 

• Other consultants/companies can reveal a great deal about the industry, where it’s headed, and where you fit into the big picture.
• Compile a list of the top 5 competitors in the industry, preferably those who are in your niche.
• Learn as much as possible about the companies – how many staff members they employ, what services they provide, their pricing structure, and their  marketing strategy.
• Carefully examine all of the testimonials, ratings, and client reviews to determine their strengths and weaknesses. For example, if a number of reviewers are mentioning their high price point, then you may want to take this into consideration when creating your own fee structure.

3. Build a rapport with your client base.

• Building a rapport with clients is one of the most important aspects of becoming a consultant.
• A successful consultant must work closely with clients, which requires a certain degree of trust, respect, and credibility. 
• You must work hard to build a solid reputation that attracts new clientele and keeps existing clients loyal.
• Reach out to them on a regular basis in-person and always return their messages or emails in a timely manner.
• Meet with them frequently, talk to them and learn about their environment, challenges and opportunities.
• Share information about the industry and other interesting items with them.
• Stay on top of your game – always communicate and know what’s happening on your projects, client issues, political landscape, etc.

4. Become active on social media pageswhere clients can learn about new services, promotions, and any events that you are hosting or speaking at. 

5. Promote your services EVERY DAY.  Marketing your company’s services is almost a full-time job.

• Set aside time each day, and promote your company on social media sites, forums, blogs, and any other online platforms that can help you build the buzz.
• Remember that it’s all give and take. For example, sharing tips with your LinkedIn or Twitter followers may take time, but it will help you build your brand image.

Follow these tips to forge your path to success and be the best consultant you can be. It may require a significant amount of trial and error, and perseverance, but being able to achieve your goals on your own terms is well worth it in the end.

Written collaboratively by Alex Morris, Josh Quist, and Matt P Tripp

Imagine that you are in a maze. There are twists, turns, and dead-ends. It is easy to get lost once you have entered and time-consuming to get to the end.

In many ways, a person’s career path can be the same- a series of seemingly unconnected, perhaps haphazard, choices with no idea where the goal of a dream job hides, much less how to get there or how close (or far) an individual may be to stumbling upon it. They might wind up getting there or they might not. They might take years longer or they might become stuck in a job with a set of skills that bring them no closer to where they want to be.

Instead of wandering blindly, wouldn’t it be easier to simply take a look over the walls of the maze and get the big picture- catch a glimpse of the lay of the land, decide where you want to be relative to where you are and map out the shortest route to get there?

But people often neglect to assess their own location within their career path, where they want to be, and how to get there. These questions, though seldom asked, can provide an individual with significantly more direction as they address the next steps in their career, ensuring that time and resources will be well-spent making strides toward a target position and helping to avoid backtracking.

For example, consider the ramifications for selecting developmental activities. There are near endless choices: thousands of catalogs filed courses, books on every topic, and numerous on-the-job trainings. Availability certainly isn’t a problem- the real challenge is locating the right information. Without an idea of the standing in one’s career path, the sheer amount of information can be overwhelming, almost ensuring that the best information gets lost in the noise of lesser options.

Individuals may fall prey to the simplistic yet seductive thinking that each turn in the career maze is a solitary choice. Viewing each turn in a vacuum outside the career path makes it more likely that one will make decisions based on what is immediately accessible rather than what is best in the long run. Perhaps even scarier is the possibility that through unfocused training and auto-pilot advancement, an individual could find themselves at a dead-end in the maze of career paths, unable to get back onto their desired track without significant changes, time, and money.

The answer to this problem is for employees to peek above the maze of jobs, trainings, and tasks in order to get a better idea of where they would like to be. With this much needed additional perspective workers can begin planning out how best to advance along their career path in a meaningful and intentional way. While an individual might be able to accomplish this on their own through research and discussions with others, it would be much easier for employees if organizations helped them get the leg up needed to understand career paths.

The best and easiest thing an organization can provide to help their workers is a career path guide, map, or tool. Such resources help show employees potential positions they might be competent to perform or might enjoy performing, the shortest route to reach such positions, and even how to get started along that career path. Recommendations and information can be tailored specifically to the needs of the company, ensuring that an organization is able to select the most important or highest impact trainings or activities to better prepare their workforce. Hopefully, providing employees with such resources can help to best align their interests, preferences, and strengths with available positions thereby leading to a more capable, happier workforce. Additionally, it sends the message that the organization cares about its employees’ futures and wants to help them along their career path.

While career path guides, maps, or tools will all offer employees (and prospective employees) the tools they need to navigate an organization’s opportunities, the onus remains on the individual to actually take the initiative to begin. In other words, an organization can only offer the boost over the maze wall- the much needed perspective- but the individual has to actually decide to take advantage of the view.

Questions to Think About:

What kind of career support does your organization provide? What could your organization do to better support the careers of its workforce? How might career paths be able to help your organization or its employees? As a worker, would you want to see a resource such as a career path tool implemented at your organization? How would you use career paths to inform your developmental activities or job search?

Matthew Tripp
Human Capital Research Assistant at C² Technologies

As a consequence of the modern economic climate, talented and savvy individuals are seeking out those jobs that might be able to increase their employability, not just provide a paycheck. For workers, this offers two unique opportunities: advancing skills and knowledges through freedom in employment and leveraging those skills and knowledges into better jobs.

Individuals wanting to make the most of their employability must seek out opportunities to acquire additional useful skills. This could be as simple as attending extra trainings or workshops, but jobs that offer the chance to acquire unique hands-on training should be equally valued. Workers may find themselves working in seemingly unusual or disparate jobs over the course of their career but might develop the skills and knowledges needed to move into their dream job or even change the trajectory of their entire career path.

Turning to utilizing those skills, given how eagerly organizations are seeking highly qualified individuals, prospective employees who can set themselves apart as being skilled, trained, or knowledgeable are in a position to leverage their talents into better jobs. The opportunity for a better career is there- but workers have to take control of managing their future. Acquiring and actively displaying employability is essential. Whether a worker is updating their LinkedIn profile to include newly acquired skills or volunteering to train others, being able to inform a prospective employer of acquired knowledges and skills can provide an advantage over the sea of applicants.

While the game may be changing for job seekers, individuals are being given unprecedented control over the direction of their career paths. But with that control and freedom come peril. Individuals who learn to adapt to the new value of employability stand to make gains in their careers while ensuring that they will always be in demand. But those that fail to see the importance of employability may find themselves stagnating in an undesirable position or even unemployed.

Matthew Tripp

Human Capital Intern at C² Technologies

Talented and informed individuals will seek out those job opportunities that can help them increase their employability. It follows that organizations have a chance to acquire and retain top-tier talent by providing employees with the opportunity to gain knowledge, skills, and abilities that increase their potential value as employees in the future. Therefore, organizations should take two actions:

(1) Increase opportunities for employees to acquire new knowledges, skills, and abilities and (2) emphasize those opportunities as they recruit new talent.

Top talents likely have many opportunities, but an organization that is able to offer the chance to increase long-term stability through increased employability can gain an advantage in the recruiting game.

Providing additional opportunities for employees to gain new knowledges, skills, and abilities may seem initially daunting, expensive, and impractical, but there are simple ways to improve these. Certainly an organization can send all their employees to multiple trainings and seminars to increase a worker’s employability, but they could just as easily cross train individuals in different work roles within their organization or have individuals from differing departments or areas give presentations on their work or research. These have the benefit of being low cost, increasing individual employability, but also help the organization to have a more diverse and capable workforce. Such a shift would even help to ensure that individual members of an organization are able to keep an organization functioning if an employee leaves. The ideas for cheap and widely accessible improvements to employability are nearly endless if an organization is willing to implement them.

Every organization pays employees. Most organizations have benefits. But not every organization is able to offer its employees the chance to improve their long-term employability. But it is not enough to just have opportunities to increase employability- organizations need to alert potential applicants and communities to such opportunities for them to have an impact. Whether that means adding a post on the company website detailing such efforts or simply informing job applicants about them directly, it is crucial that an organization disseminate information about opportunities to increase employability. Highlighting these opportunities will set an organization apart and make it more desirable, particularly for talented and savvy workers.

While organizations that can adapt their recruiting, training, and job roles to help increase worker employability stand to make significant gains, those that fail to evolve may see top talent flee to other organizations. While a worker may feel secure and happy in their current job, they may look to transition to jobs with opportunities to acquire knowledge, skills, and abilities that make them more attractive employees in the future. This forward thinking planning on the part of workers requires organizations to reevaluate their recruiting, training, and job role models to incorporate employability or face losing top-level talent to other organizations.

Matthew Tripp

Human Capital Intern at C² Technologies

The traditional portrayal of the American worker is defined by stability. A person signs on with a company fresh out of school and they work their way up, advancing within the company. It is a classic tale in America and one that is much loved. The popularity of such anecdotes highlights the value placed on stability and linear progression for a worker within a single organization.

But that is not the reality that employees are now facing. Rather than sticking with a single organization, workers are increasingly finding themselves shuffling between jobs and even careers. A struggling economy and tough job market have helped decrease job security. With the possibility of layoffs, budget cuts, and long term unemployment looming, workers require a source of stability to guarantee future employment. Employability helps to fill that gap by providing workers with a set of knowledges, skills, and abilities that they take with them to their next job and beyond, ensuring that even if the current job is lost another position is within reach.

With the security and loyalty of old now declining, how can anyone ensure that they will have a job in the future? Maybe employability – those knowledges, skills, and abilities that make an individual valuable to an organization – has supplanted the traditional role of job security. Workers may no longer feel secure in their job within a specific organization, but can increasingly rely on their employability to guarantee a job, if not their current job. While this new system of employability certainly reflects the modern job climate, workers may be left wondering whether it is better or worse than job security once was.

This change not only reflects the modern job climate but signals a necessary shift in strategy for both organizations and job seekers. Organizations unable to appeal to job seekers’ desire to increase employability may find themselves losing their employees to competitors and unable to compete for top level talents. Job seekers who neglect to adapt their job search strategies and techniques may be unable to secure desirable employment. But the opportunity to excel exists for both job seekers and organizations – if they can adapt to the shift from job security to employability.

By Alok Bhupatkar, PhD / C² Technologies, Inc.

In the field of social sciences in which so many disciplines are interconnected, we—as Industrial Psychologists or OD Consultants or Change Agents—can excel if we (a) identify the parallels between these disciplines and (b) apply our knowledge of these parallels to help our clients. One such inter-disciplinary collaboration that I was fortunate to be a part of was when I was working with my good friends at IMPAQ International (and particularly, the Business Process Reengineering group). When working with this group, we implemented a Team Task and Communications Analysis Tool (TCAT), to complement the BPR methodology called Value Stream Mapping (VSM).  The main benefits I derived (and hope others did as well!) from this inter-disciplinary collaboration were: (a) learning about other discipline, and (b) creating opportunities for future collaboration.

There are numerous other examples of inter-disciplinary collaborations, as well as examples of athletes playing dual sports! Yes, I like to provide work analogies to sports whenever possible (and I find it helps my clients as well). For instance: Did you know that Steve Nash (an eight-time NBA All-Star) grew up playing soccer and once trained with the New York Red Bulls of Major League Soccer? There’s a reason that soccer comes naturally to Steve Nash, who once upon a time had, IMO, the best pick-and-roll game in the NBA, along with Amar’e Stoudemire (currently of the Miami Heat).

If you understand the technicalities of “pick-and-roll” and soccer (in particular, the mid-field position), you will understand why these two plays in two different sports are so similar. When a mid-fielder in soccer attracts an opponent towards herself/himself, and then passes the ball through open lanes, that play has its parallels to the traditional “pick-and-roll” in basketball. A realization of these parallels was important for Steve Nash to play these sports at a very high level.

What We Did

The key challenge for us (as Industrial Psychologists/Change Agents) was to complement the application of these methodologies to solve one issue: miscommunication of information and processes between multiple offices.

1. First, we dug into the background of these two distinct but related disciplines—I/O Psychology and Business Process Reengineering—and found that the two disciplines shared one of the many founding fathers: Frederick Taylor, who was influential in applying science to the engineering of processes and management and presented his work inThe Principles of Scientific Management. His main objective was to improve labor productivity and, eventually, the economic efficiency of organizations.
2. Second, we convinced our client (and their leadership team) to use these complementary tools to build a more holistic business process improvement plan and empower them to address the issue at hand, that of miscommunication across offices.

Team Task & Communications Analysis (TCAT) Tool

We empirically measured team task interdependence and workflow communication patterns using the TCAT tool and provided guided feedback to respondents shortly thereafter. Team tasks with high variance were examined closely and training was designed to focus on specific tasks in which participants were “not on same page.”

Value Stream Mapping (VSM) Tool

We used VSM, a visual diagram of how information and material flow through a process. It is a Lean tool that can be used to examine a process for the presence of unnecessary and wasteful activities. The key difference between TCAT and VSM is that VSM focuses on the “outcomes” of the process, whereas TCAT focuses on the “team-based tasks” performed during the process.

What We Found

VSM provided information at the process level of analysis. It created a whole picture of a process on the virtual whiteboard from start to finish, giving our client an opportunity to examine bottlenecks and issues at each step within the process. This level of information was critical, but not sufficient to address any team-level communication loopholes that might exist at the task level during the process. To address loopholes at the task level, we implemented the TCAT survey to identify tasks in which high levels of miscommunication existed. After analyzing these data, we were able to pinpoint the exact tasks where the teams (and individuals within the teams) were not on the same page and provide evidence-based training.  And similar to how Steve Nash was able to find parallels across sports, we were able to find parallels across disciplines and help our client accomplish their goals.

Our Conference Paper on This Topic

If you wish to know the full story behind our study, please come visit us at the upcoming Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology (SIOP) 2016 Conference in Anaheim, CA on April 14.

http://www.siop.org/conferences/16con/

What is your story of finding parallels across disciplines?

To ring in 2016, ATD’s Leadership Development Community of Practice gathered to share a potluck of appetizers and predictions for the future. The evening began with a look back at 2015 and our hard-won lessons learned. Then we each made a prediction for 2016. The Wordle images below provide a glimpse of what our group of passionate leadership developers are thinking as 2016 gets underway. If you prefer a more linear view, check out the lists of lessons learned, trends, and predictions at the end of this post.

2015 Lessons Learned

Trends

Predictions

Notable Quotes

Here are my favorite quotes from the evening. Apologies for the lack of attribution for two of them.

“Leadership is capturing a dream we can all relate to.” –Gabe Hamda

“Leaders need to develop a palette of skills to draw on.”

“Leaders help people make mistakes and learn from them.”

Bonus Predictions
Our discussion was so robust, and so many people wanted to share their perspectives that Alok and I, who were facilitating and scribing, never got a chance to give our predictions. We promised the group that we’d do so here. So as a bonus, here are two more sets of predictions.

Alok’s Predictions:

• Expansion of Virtual Teams: Based on a survey conducted by SIOP recently, work is becoming more about “what” you do rather than “where” you do it. Virtual teams will increase rapidly in 2016 and engaging employees who are not in the same location will be a challenge for employers. This will also have implications for personnel selection. In recruiting, will employers now look for employees that are more engaged in their work vs. work environment?
• Overhaul of Performance Management: Will the performance management systems go through significant changes? More organizations seem to focus on the “developmental” aspect of performance management that fosters collaboration as opposed to forced distribution and rankings of their employees that promotes competition. Perhaps, and in addition to the supervisor who provides performance feedback, many employers will begin to think about a coach-like person who can provide developmental feedback.
• Resurgence in Employee Engagement: Many employers are starting to realize that engaged employees are not only productive employees, but these employees can go beyond their “job descriptions” to help their co-workers (and divisions and company) when needed. For example, these are the people who care and are committed to their organizations. Can employers select these kinds of individuals? Absolutely yes! There are many shelved and tailored assessments that can be administered to select individuals who are more likely to be engaged in their work.

Claudia’s Predictions

• Helping the Overwhelmed Employee: Current research from Deloitte indicates that “more than two-thirds of all organizations believe that their employees are “overwhelmed” with too much information, too many projects, too many meetings and phone calls, and an always-on 24 X 7 work environment.”  This theme also comes up in Josh Bersin’s predictions for 2016.  Being overwhelmed affects employees’ health. It keeps them from developing new skills and knowledge. And it takes away from families and communities. It can lead to broken relationships and half-baked solutions. In 2016, leaders must address this issue by simplifying workplace operations and helping employees focus.
• Gaming for Leadership Development: Gaming and gamification of learning have been frequent topics in recent blogs and articles. And research shows that there are many good reasons for using games for leadership development. Only games are able to emulate accurately the complex interconnected environment in which leaders operate. Gaming environments allow leaders to practice and apply multiple competencies simultaneously, and since they have fun doing so, they’re willing to practice more often. So, look for more gaming options for leadership development.
• ReImagining Learning: In his predictions for 2016, Bersin foresees significant disruption in corporate learning: “Employees are now in charge, video learning is everywhere, and hundreds of new learning tools and platforms are entering the market.” Many articles have been written about the need for change in learning and development. However, often organizational institutions and structures stop change from occurring. Technology gives us myriad options. Learning leaders need to guide clients and create environments that allow for new approaches for learning and performance support–for leadership development and all kinds of learning.

The Linear Lists:

2015 Lessons Learned

• There’s no such thing as job security
• Better to fire a bad customer (bad fit)
• Be proactive in anticipating change and transferring knowledge
• Motivating people to implement change is hard (planning is easier than implementing)
• Leaders have to see themselves as orchestra conductors
• Creating an environment for innovation
• In large organizations, move away from branding
• Organizations need to create succession pools and they’re not prepared
• Training isn’t the only answer (selection is important too)
• Training needs to be continuing
  -Engagement
  -Like military, sports, blue collar
• Need to differentiate between terms that are often confused
  -Learning, training, education
  -Consulting, coaching
• Identify skills gaps and offer development
• Leader sets the capacity (vision); manager develops
• Culture changes at the mid-level
• Lead people; manage things
• People working later in life: changing environment
• Goal and environment changing: how people are affected and how they affect the environment
• People retiring at age 30
• Things happen in teams
• Bring in diversity to make a better widget

Trends:

• Young leaders (less experienced) don’t know hot to work with consultants
• Multigenerational workplace: Leverage the best of all generations
• Organizations asking to evaluate/measure leadership development programs
• Millennials want to be promoted faster
  -What’s the backward path if they don’t succeed
  -How do we recognize potential
• Change the pipeline, change the organization
• Hybrid careers
  -Intense training
  -Job with high salary
• Data-driven decisions
• Experiential learning
  -Evaluating so get credit

Predictions

• Big Data
  -How to quantify
  -What’s the problem
  -Data analytic teams
• More coaching, but limited results
• Coming together as a team vs. virtual work
• Situational leadership will make a comeback
• New forms of Performance Management
  -Turn upside down
  -Difference between metrics and measurement
• More creativity in creating diversity
• Experiential learning
• More virtual teams
  -Better virtual technology
  -Better satisfaction
  -Better engagement
• People need to be together for soft skills
• Succession planning
  -Companies that don’t do this will fall off the map
• Increase in leadership curriculum in high school, college, and junior high
• Shelf-based expert systems
• Neuroscience and brain science
  -Connect people better
  -Conversational; civil discourse; intel
• Leadership and Development gear up to move data analysis to the front line
• Multigenerational issues
  -How to make it work
• Simplified focus and finish: basics
• Preventing fraud in accreditation
  -System of trust
  -Place to find people with the sills we need
  -Adhoc teams
• Companies will realize that leadership starts at the bottom
• More sophisticated onboarding
• Leverage diversity strategically

by Melynda S. Benlemlih, C² Technologies, Inc.

As the new year unfolds, I’ve been thinking a lot about collaboration, innovation, and the communication required to achieve both. I’m thinking about how to make the most of time spent communicating with those around me, those I work and live with. Collaboration can be as easy as providing a space for everyone to “think out loud.” How about you? Do you find that the time you spend communicating with those around you is productive? Could it be more effective? Get better results?

In this post, we’ll explore what it takes to transform your everyday space into a space that enables brainstorming, creativity—dare I say, innovation—and, most importantly, understanding. With an investment of time, some planning, and a few dollars (or a lot!) , you can transform the way you work with colleagues, students, clients, volunteer organizations, even family members!

At C2 Technologies, Inc. we embarked  on our own experiment with a Collaboration Space!  We love it! And our clients love it too! We’ve hosted planning and strategy sessions, design and storyboarding sessions, with great results. We find that we get better results faster by bringing everyone together (physically and virtually—but more on that in the next post).

Here is our three-step process to creating a collaboration space:

​​1. Purpose: First, think about the purpose of spending time together. Do you design training or user interfaces, facilitate meetings or workshops?  Do you use visual materials and encourage people to interact with each other to learn, create ideas, or plan? Do you chat with folks in the company cafeteria or break room (or wherever the proverbial “water cooler” is) and have those Ah Ha! moments when the light bulbs go on …seemingly impromptu and by chance?

2. Envision: After you have thought about the interactions you have with people around you, create a picture in your mind of what you would like the outcomes of those interactions to be…to look like. Do you envision walls full of storyboards? A company retreat or strategic planning session where everyone is sharing ideas in small groups? Or is your team planning your next project and writing out tasks and schedules on sticky notes on the wall, rearranging them when someone realizes something the group has missed.

3. Design: Too often we plan so effectively that we forget to plan in the “free thinking” space. That space, in both time and physical location, is where ideas happen, where details are remembered, where understanding occurs. It doesn’t take much: it can be as little as paint and markers, or as elaborate as moving wall partitions and modular furniture. Here are more design elements to think about:

Accessibility: Can everyone you talk with access the space? Is it located in a central room or spot?

Wall surface: We love those offices with lots of windows, but think about a wall or two to create “big thinking moments.” Think about color!

Writing surface: Large rolls of paper, sticky flipchart paper. Even better, whiteboard wall paint or boards.

Supplies: Dry erase and permanent markers, sticky notes, tape, stickers! How about Legos®, molding clay? (Okay, going too far?)

Seating: Encourage small-group discussions with clusters of a few chairs around small tables. Just cover the table with butcher paper or flipchart paper and go at it!

Save your work: Sure, you can save all those notes, but take pictures too! You’ll need them when you want to turn those big ideas into action!

Here are some pictures of an office library re-purposed into a collaboration space:

We Call It The Innovation Lab!

By: Sanjay Ahuja, VP C2 Technologies, Inc.

I want to take a poll on “If It ain’t broke, yet continue to fix it”….Yes that’s the new mantra in today’s world where technology has an unannounced expiry date, that comes in quickly. Before you decide to agree or disagree with this, think about Apple…I mean nothing was wrong with iphone 2….it wasn’t broken…but then Apple continued to fix it by releasing iphone 3, 4…and now 7. Google each year, changes its search algorithm around 500–600 times. They don’t have to, if they don’t want to…. it’s not broken yet.

It’s not just the technology. This applies to leadership also. Innovative companies believe in changing leadership too after a few years even it ain’t broke….I mean Steve Ballmer was doing fine…..nothing broken…but Microsoft still thought of fixing it by bringing in Nadella. Imagine if companies likes Google, Apple, Amazon, Facebook, Netflix and likes of it believed in not disrupting status quo…we probably would have continued to call our laptops as mobile devices…. after all laptops were first built keeping mobility in consideration as desktops were not the one that could be carried around. Yet we see organizations around us, surprisingly many of them Fortune 500, believe in “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix. They need to look at erstwhile great organizations with the similar belief that are now struggling to survive (some of them wiped-out)…..remember Blackberry (RIM), Blockbuster, Dell, Kodak, Motorola, Sun Microsystems, Atari, Netscape, Gateway, Singer (remember the sewing machine)…the list is getting longer as it continues to grow…status quo is the guarantee for disaster.​

As 2015 kicks off, we at C² are doing what we do best by looking forward at all of the amazing technologies unfolding each day.  It seems the industry is growing at an exponential rate, and we at C² are committed to offering new, cutting-edge solutions in the world of e-learning, human capital, performance improvement, information technology, and application development to our clients. Once again this year we are looking closely at how the world is embracing new technologies, and we’re pursuing ways to improve on our products and offer the very best solutions available in the increasingly connected workplace.

Each year, as the new technologies begin to emerge, and the older evolve, I enjoy looking towards all of the possibilities, and jumping in to begin working on new ways to better our products.  Looking back at the predictions we made last year and seeing them unfold in 2015 is gratifying – and it motivates us to push forward this year and continue to innovate.

Last year we mentioned the rise of the larger mobile devices.  Despite many who disagreed, later in 2014 we saw the arrival of larger phones such as the S5 and iPhone 6+, with the demand so high that supply was limited for months.  Even larger devices such as the Note line saw increases in size.  The trend continues, as my earlier prediction of the 12-inch iPad is nearing a release date now.  In 2014 we accurately predicted, and then saw the arrival of, the in-between device as the Microsoft Surface took the industry by surprise with its Surface 3.  The lackluster performance of the Surface 2 left us a bit skeptical of its successor, but we were delightfully surprised to see a true laptop-replacement device enter the market.  Its 12-inch size seemed to hit the sweet spot, as the upcoming redesigned MacBook Air and iPad Pro will both arrive in the same 12-inch form.

In 2014 we saw the over-promise and ultimate demise of the proposed Google Glass.  However, Google’s commitment to the project may simply be refocused to the proper audience rather than suffering a complete closedown.  Tony Fadell of Apple fame (as the person responsible for turning the iPod into a cultural icon) has stepped up to lead the Glass team.  Although we will not see the average person sporting Glass in the near future, I think we will see a reemergence of the device in the proper market.  We could write an entire series of articles on these predictions, and the place in which Glass may fit within our industry; however, for this blog entry, I think its only importance lies in pointing out what Glass has accomplished in its brief life.  For one thing, it has brought attention to a market that is on the verge of exploding.

Competitors have eased into the market a little less aggressively than Google, but nonetheless intriguingly.  Microsoft revealed its HoloLens at this year’s CES, as well as interesting bits of info regarding its collaboration with NASA over the past few years on the project.  As Microsoft states, “The era of holographic computing is here.”  Where the public simply could not embrace the idea of wearing headgear during everyday activities,

Microsoft seems more in focus with their head gear embracing the exponential growth of the smart-office and smart-home.

Also on the horizon is the long-awaited Apple Watch.  In 2014 we saw the explosion of fitness tracking wearables, along with a few smart watches attempting to beat Apple to market.  Apple’s soon-to-be-released entry promises to be a game changer.

App developers are rushing to get their health-connected apps ready for the release date, and competitors are hot on their heels, producing and pushing more feature-rich devices for healthcare monitoring every day.

The natural question that follows is: How do all of these technologies and facts affect our business, the world of e-learning, human performance improvement, human capital, etc.?  The answer is simple.  Looking at the past trends, and those in front of us now, we see that since 2013, some 650 million new connected devices have come online, 3D printers have became a billion-dollar market, and 10% of all automobiles became connected.  The promise for 2015 is of even greater connectivity with the increase in smart autos, smart homes, offices – and  as even smart payment systems arrive.  As of last Friday, according to Bloomberg, the White House announced Federal-payment cards are now supporting Apple Pay.  Gartner predicts businesses will see a 500% increase in key digital business jobs by 2018.  The top jobs essential in the coming years are listed as functions that can integrate traditional business into the growing digital realm.  C² is at the forefront of this transformation, researching and designing solutions to best serve our customers in this diverse range of markets.

As more and more people expect full connectivity in the age of the Internet of Things (IoT), we at C² are working to ensure that our products and services are on the cutting edge, offering innovative solutions that meet our clients’ needs regardless of the devices they’re delivered to.  We pride ourselves on being device-agnostic when designing our award-winning solutions, and strive to push even further in 2015 to assist and educate our clients in the rapidly changing world of possibilities.

In various industries such as education and healthcare, C² is leading the way in integrating these technologies into our products.  We make sure the online learning products will display and function beautifully on your users’ various devices.  We take pride in advising and developing healthcare support that not only educates, but integrates with the wealth of devices your users will expect.

In 2014, we saw an incredible surge of interest in Unmanned Vehicles.  From the self-driving cars at Google, to Amazon delivery using drones, we have seen the public’s eye on these futuristic devices.  With 2015 now at full speed, we are seeing even more buzz with Uber suggesting driverless cars, or Apple’s mysterious entry into the arena with the secretive autos being spotted all over Cupertino.  About the only thing growing more quickly than the number of privately owned drones is the level of concern surrounding them.  Questions of privacy, regulation, and even training on the devices are equally abundant.  C² has fully invested in the world of Unmanned Vehicles, not only training for various vehicles and regulations, but entering into the market with our own product being offered.  Contact us for more info on our exciting new products and training.

I’ve heard that people are now referring to Silicon Valley as App Valley as a result of the explosion of demand for future apps. 2015 promises to be a year of amazing advances in the tech/connected world.  We at C² are excited to bring more innovation than ever before.  Ranging from our award-winning mobile apps for the U.S. Army (demo), Enterprise Level Products such as our Air Force Training Record (demo), custom Learning Management Systems, cutting-edge Human Capital products like our FAA Career Planning Tool (demo), Virtual Environments such as our Virtual Orientation Center (demo), and a wide range of e-learning and instructor-led training, we stand ready to bring to our customers the very best in the industry.