Reaction+to+Community+Learners'+PII+Projects

Fred Davis's Reaction to Community Learners' PII Project

__McKoy and Old Navy Intervention__ You have focused on an important aspect of business, which, historically, can always use assistance in building company revenue. Sales is the precipice or cornerstone of business -- and today's sales challenges are virtually uinprecedented. Consequently, your intervention of Old Navy is predicated on the company's poor sales, which you indicate stem from lack of ability and low motivation. That may be. But you should move cautiously in this area, particularly in light of a prolonged and sagging national economy that is often mirrored locally with similar or worse sales results. In other words, the bad economy may have a direct impact on a company's sales, no matter how effective or talented a sales force may be.

I co-authored a book titled "Sales Force Effectiveness" for the Gallup Organization in 1999, and in this tome I layed out a number of reasons for sales effectiveness, up to and including so-called sales premadonnas, who believe all they have to do is wave a magic wand and a sale will take place. But the primary focus of this book for Gallup, which is one of the world's biggest opinion polling and management firms, is that businesses should analyze sales teams in a broad number of ways to obtain a comprehensive and malleable way to solve whatever sales problems that exist.

I point this out in your commendable analysis of Old Navy because low or declining revenue for a company often is not just tied to poor sales performance or low motivation. Again, that may be a contributing factor in Old Navy's case, but the prolonged lackluster economy no doubt is a culprit, too. In fact, as a close observer of broadcast and print sales for three-plus decades, I'm willing to bet that Old Navy's salespeople, management, stockholders, and other stakeholders place the blame on the economy more than anything else. Sales is a cutthroat business, but it is also an aspect of a capitalistic society that has myriad external drivers and restraining forces that are mind-blowing when it comes to operating a business.

I hope you find these comments insightful and instructive.

Fred

__Wright and D S Murphy Software__ Admittedly, Tabitha, the first thing that comes to mind after reading your intervention project is whether TQM (Total Quality Management), Six Sigma, or any of the slew of other management approaches could rescue this company with its software problems. My M.B.A background nudges me in the direction of TQM and the emphasis on "goods and services," given the abysmal customer service that seems to ensue with D S Murphy's software. But pushing aside any fleeting commiseration on my part regarding the right management approach or regression model, I have to say I'm not sure the lack of sofware training is the source of your company's problems. When I think of software, I think of programs that are used to reach a desired outcome. For example, in my journalism, communication, and education classes, or in the print or electronic newsroom, software is there to get us to the desired level. If I'm trying to strengthen conceptualization and critical thinking skills, I know programs such as Inspiration will help us get to the desired point. Additionally, If I'm trying to hammer home the importance of timelines, I know Tom Synder's Timeliner program is the graphic elixir in this regard. And so forth and so on.

However, in the case of D S Murphy, which you have detailed extensively and arduously, it is hard to ascertain whether the problem is the software or the people using it. Granted, you focused on the training problems, and I'm with you in that training does appear to be part of the company's dilemma. But what if it's a software design problem, or, worse, the wrong people who are managing it? In my years of analyzing journalism programs involving complicated issues, sometimes the people producing the programs just miss the boat in communicating the message. Perhaps D S Murphy has embarked on a business venture in which it has created more problems than those it set out to solve with its software.

I hope my comments are both insightful and instructive.

Fred

__Sharick and Ivy Bridge College of Tiffin University__ Sara, as I digest your intervention project involving Tiffin's Ivy Bridge College, a couple of things quickly come to mind. And they both involve distance education -- and what portends for this educational institution down the road. I don't think there's much question about the benefits of interactivity in an online community, particularly as it relates to learners. Instructors also reap great rewards in a distance education environment, and you articulate the requisite collaboration and instruction involved in the process from an asynchronous and synchronous point of view. Detailed syllabi, student forum postings, and a clearly defined list of course expectations and assignments (Durrington, Berryhill, & Swafford, 2006) also are benefits for educators in an online environment.

But my $64,000 question regarding this intervention is, which is more important to Tiffin -- the immediate boost to distance education regarding increased student interaction online, or the notoriety distance education is likely to bring to the institution in the months and years ahead, especially if everything works? More clearly put, what is the end game regarding time and distance education for the university or its components? As referred to previously, I don't believe there is any quesion about a more interactive online community and the benefits students gain from such collaboration and interactivity. But that's the student end, and, to a larger extent, the teachers who have much-needed flexibility in the way they assess learners' work online.

Given your impressive delineation, I'm going to assume Tiffin can use the boost in both its distance education and notoriety that can result from it. As someone who is often sought out for advice involving educational technology with integrated learning curricula, traditional institutions are adding online and distance education to their academic environment as quickly as they can reboot the institution's computers or reposition the mouse.

Good luck in helping Ivy College migrate into 21st century communications!

Fred