Workplace Research
meets the need to be heard.
INFORM!
Internal Communication
meets the need to be informed.
CONNECT!
Information Technology
meets the need to connect easily.
EDUCATE!
Continuous Learning Opportunities
meet the need for life-long learning.
MAKE MEANING!
Meaningful Work™ Career Coaching
meets the need for meaning.
Make your organization stand out, with FutureU's 5-Star Strategy for Leadership Development and Employee Retention. Email or call today for more information.
FutureU
WEST COAST OFFICE
601 Van Ness Avenue,
Suite E433
San Francisco, CA 94102
USA
EAST COAST OFFICE
Wells, ME 04090
415-824-7726
415-520-5416 (Fax)
www.futureu.com
The need to connect easily is met by:
Information Technology
It's not the technology. It's what you do with it.
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ayoffs, mergers and budget cuts have made workloads so heavy that employees, managers and executives tend to neglect their continuing education and shared-governance activities. Regulatory paperwork and the demands of email communication further erode the time available. For today’s large, multi-site organizations, the sheer distance among people adds to the challenge.
To reduce all these obstacles, organizations are turning to e-learning and virtual communication. At their best, these new tools—
- Save time
- Add convenience
- Expand what is possible
- Actually improve performance
The greatest payoff comes to those organizations that—
- Make the effort to identify the needs and preferences of their people
- Select tools and educational offerings that meet those needs
- Actively promote broad adoption of the new venues
- Encourage best practices
Such "extra" steps are what link information technology to enhanced retention and cost-effective personnel development.
Long before the Internet became a household word, the founders of FutureU were advising organizations on the appropriate use of technology to improve communication and learning.
FutureU can help you leverage the new media into an invaluable tool for retention and development.
The FutureU Cycle of Success® with Information Technology (IT)
Developed across two decades of support for organizational communication, collaboration and learning, the FutureU Cycle of Success® with IT came fully into focus in 2001 when FutureU started helping the NASA Astrobiology Institute create a "community" among nearly 1,000 scientists who work together, across disciplines, on multiple technology platforms, from many locations and time zones.
Equally applicable to any dispersed or busy workforce, the FutureU Cycle of Success® with IT is a comprehensive set of steps for maximizing an organization’s investment in technology for communication, collaboration, or learning. It starts with the premise that information technology is a worthwhile investment only to the extent that it builds bridges among people. Applications to employee retention derive from the role such bridges play in shaping perceptions about complex issues, improving team work, advancing individual careers, and inspiring loyalty.
Virtual Collaboration. If you plan to launch, upgrade, or expand a program in virtual collaboration, FutureU will work closely with your IT staff and administrators to—
- Assess existing practices and tools used for communication and learning
- Identify user needs and preferences for possible change
- Identify suitable delivery methods
- Match those methods to user capabilities
- Create or tailor delivery systems as needed
- Implement strategies for introducing new tools, methods, and best practices
- Facilitate online meetings and train participants and leaders in best practices Train staff in the ongoing maintenance of the delivery system
- Follow up with the important step of evaluating results.
E-Learning. FutureU has developed and tested a set of effective tools to—
- Determine the needs and readiness of trainers and learners
- Identify the most suitable delivery methods
- Create or tailor delivery systems as needed
- Train trainers in the use of the technology
- Convert current training for online delivery
- Introduce learners and trainers to best practices
- Identify, deliver, and manage superior educational content
- Train staff in the ongoing maintenance of the delivery system
- Evaluate outcomes
Introduce "Best Practices for Using IT"
With These FutureU Modules for
E-Learners, Trainers, and Decision Makers
Computer Literacy
- Basic Computer Literacy
- Taming the E-Mail Monster: Learning to use E-Mail Productively
- Introduction to Online Meeting Basics: Productive,efficient telephone, video or Web-based meetings
E-Learning
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Virtual Collaboration
- Video and Teleconferencing Basics
- Conducting Successful Web-Based Meetings in Real Time
- Conducting Web-Based Meetings or Trainings Independent of Time
- Improving Teamwork Across Distance
Audio Production
- Audio Production for the Web
- Creating Promotional/Informational Audio Products
Video Production
- Professional Uses of Consumer Camcorders
- Digital Video Editing
- Working Successfully with Outside Production Facilities
- Digital Video Distribution (including Internet and DVDs)
To learn more about these and other topics, please see the FutureU catalog, entitled Continuous Learning Opportunities. In addition to the Best Practices modules listed above, the catalog describes current FutureU offerings related to Leadership Mastery, Business Literacy, Personal Growth, and Life Enhancement.
Most FutureU training can be delivered face to face, online or both (blended). New offerings are in development all the time. All are fully customizable.
Why the FutureU Cycle of Success® with IT?
ü Minimize resistance to change and increase buy-in
ü Eliminate costly purchasing errors
ü Speed up decision making
ü Shorten learning curves with new technology
ü Maximize long-term adoption of new tools
ü Improve retention through best practices in e-learning
ü Improve teamwork through best practices in virtual
communication
ü Create a more satisfied workforce, more willing to stay
the course
ü Keep staff focused on their primary work, while FutureU
carries the added burden of the human side to information technology.
Why FutureU?
ü The maturity and insight of pioneers in |
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"With FutureU’s help, we are seeing a significant improvement in the quality of participation in all our online modules."
Johanna Infantine
Health Forum, American
Hospital Association
"Thank you for all your insights and extremely well-prepared and informative e-learning materials."
Heath Forum Fellow
Selected FutureU Clients in Information Technology
No other firm is better prepared to help you make the most of your investment in information technology for training and virtual collaboration. FutureU has helped hundreds of organizations in this rapidly-evolving field, including:
- AIX Infosys Co. (Thailand)
- Allied Business Schools
- American Hospital Association (Health Forum Division)
- California Institute of Integral Studies
- California Virtual Campus
- California State University/Sacramento
- College of Science Technology & Applied Arts (Trinidad and Tobago)
- Columbia University
- Dominican University of California
- Foundation for Education of Science & Technology (Japan)
- The Juilliard School
- Kent State University
- King Abdul Aziz University (Jeddah, Saudi Arabia)
- Missouri State University
- NASA Astrobiology Institute
- Newman University
- Peel District School Board (Ontario, Canada)
- Rutgers University
- Thomas Jefferson University
- University of British Columbia
- University of Oklahoma
- Universidad Interamericana de Puerto Rico
- Virginia Union University
Contact FutureU
Copyright © 1997-2006 by Gail Terry Grimes and Claude Whitmyer.
All rights reserved.
Published by FutureU.