MA Business Success 12: Dojo Learning Portal

https://soundcloud.com/tima-38/martial-arts-business-success-12-dojo-learning-portal

Alex: Today, we are talking about TIMA's favorite teaching tools. Come on, kick us off, Graham. What is this all about? Graham: All righty. Well, this next thing here that I am going to talk about is our learning portal and has so many different facets to it and to explain from an instructor's point of view or a boss's point of view, having this forum where all of your IP, all of your intellectual property, all of your systems and procedures are hosted. Now, as we enter the information age and modern era, it's really vital to make sure that we stay current. Gone have the days of having a big lever arch fall with all of your systems written down and thumbprints all over it that your staff can maybe look at or learn from. What we've done is actually taken everything over the last, goodness, five years that myself and Phil have created and put it into an online platform where all of our staff have access to their, I guess, their relevant level. For example, our receptionist, we have an area where they log in if they are a brand new receptionist staff member. They learn straight away how to answer the phone with a smile. And we have everything to do with scripts, and videos and audio to go with that. Again, the next stage up would how to do the processing of the greens [SP] or whatever the role may play but instead of it being from the boss to the new employee, what we have done is taken the boss hat and put it into this online platform so that we can replicate that same system over all three schools or maybe five schools or however many we have. So it's got so many really exciting fundamentals to it but that is just one area from the boss's point of view. Phil: I think one thing to mention on that, one of the pains that we had especially as we knew we wanted to grow as business owners and not have to be there all the time, is how do we get rid of Chinese whispers. Graham says to me this is how something is done. Then I teach it to you. Something gets lost along the way and comes down six months later, we are sitting in a meeting we are going, "Why is it being done that way?" The five monkeys video you know, it's the way it's always done. Well, that is the Chinese whispers problem. So how do we get what we say, what we know, what we think, what we believe straight out of our mouth so that everyone can hear the same message once? And that's how we do the online training portal for the staff as well. Alex: So it sounds like, therefore, nothing does get lost. It's very formalized. However, do you get your personalities and yourselves into their heads by not doing it personally? Do you lose that personal touch? Graham: Look, I think there is always going to be some area of...it's complimentary tool. It's never going to be the end of it. I would use this very much as an 80% nearly there and still requires hands-on training to a point. But when you look at the time investment that you have, this person can be a brand new staff member and learn the reception role while they are at home. They can learn on their tablet. They can learn off their laptop, wherever it may be. They may even be sitting at the bus stop and have an hour spare. Well, obviously not at the bus stop but an hour spare somewhere and go, "Wow, I need to learn this role." Therefore, when they come in and they actually do the live training with the live person, it's so much easier. You're not wasting their time. It is one of those things, though having both myself and Phil, we can only be in one place at one time. And trying to replicate ourselves, we've just done this as a way to really streamline the process and make sure it's consistent branding but also consistent language being used in all of the schools. Phil: We've also used it as a very good screening tool for future employees. So we might have a position available. Let's just say it's a reception job, and we have five eager people that want to jump on board. Well, we will give them access to an online training link which takes them through an induction process. This is before they even come to see us. And then they might come to the meeting and we will know if they have logged in, how far they have gone, did they complete it and then we can ask them questions about that. And maybe, generally, you find maybe one or two out of the five have even had a look at it. So, therefore, we already know that we are really only looking at two people for this particular position. Alex: It's like holding an interview and saying, "What do you know of my business?" And they go, "Well, nothing." They're out the door straight away. Phil: So that's a great tool and another thing that works really well is that if we were going to change something, we change it in one place and it gets changed all over the world wherever you are. So a manager in a different location who we have not seen for a few weeks, we go, "Hey, guys, there is an update on the phone call procedure." Bang. It's right there so they get instant access to that rather than having a... Alex: Absolutely. Graham: It's scary, Alex, for a lot of industry at the moment because obviously myself and Phil are taking an innovative idea and running with it and bringing it to our business. Whereas it's been used around the world in different organizations but not in the Martial Arts Industry. Gone are the days, I believe, of the instructor just one day on the line to the next person giving that information and they pass that, as Phil said, getting rid of the Chinese whispers but bring it forward into the 21st century. Because if you look at it now, the way that young people are learning everything is on their smartphone or their iPads, whatever else. That is how they are going to learn two, three, four, five years. So a great quote I remember from a business conference was, "innovate or die" and I have said this multiple times. And I will keep saying it because if you don't embrace what's coming, you are going to be left very sadly in the dust behind. And we really need to, obviously, continually grow as a business owner but also continually grow and use the resources that we have available which is exciting. Alex: And do you think it is necessary to do this from the off if you are going to open a business or whether your business is very new perhaps. Is it worthwhile doing this and setting out all of those procedures, etc. from the very start? Phil: Absolutely, it's probably the easiest way to do it. Do it as you're doing it we've had plenty of people at events and seminars that we hold when we talk about for example class plans. How do I create class plans that'll last a whole year or two years or three years? Well, start by writing one what you're going to do today and guess what? You have written your one for next year this time. So yeah, do it as it is being done and then you look back at same statistics like in one of our other Podcasts is you just gotta get started, and get working at it. And then you'll look back and you go, "Look, I've got three months' worth of content." And continue doing it until you've got what you need so that you can replicate what you do, what you know, and what you say down the line without any of the drop-off of the Chinese whispers as we mentioned. Alex: Yeah, and then you just have to dedicate that time to getting it online and getting your portal sorted. Phil: Yeah, we actually have a team. You can do it two ways. What we've been able to do is do the things that we can do and bring our team in, and they can video, or structure it, or put in a presentation, or whatever. Let's say it costs a little bit extra money for someone else to do that, and they put it on the portal for you ready to go. Or if you want role your sleeves up and get into it and do it yourself, absolutely can do that as well. So there's two sets of options. The guys that we use for our online training, and we are happy to give you those details out to any of the listeners who want to take the opportunity to do what we are doing, either role your sleeves up and get in there and do it. Time is hard, but for those guys that might not be able to afford the extra little cost that it might be to get a team in to implement that online, that is definitely and option. And that is the path that we chose. Graham: Alex, I know we just touched on the benefit from, I guess, the boss point of view of having your systems, but now looking from a student access point, there's really great, exciting things as well too because, again, this particular platform, this portal has multiple functions. One, it's a great storage for all of your systems, procedures, and everything else from a staff point of view. But number two, from a student's access point, for example, when a student joins the school, they have to learn certain skills and what not to progress. If for whatever reason they're away, generally they won't get to catch up until they come back to the school and see someone live, whereas now what we've done is we have everything to do with the student progression from white belt to black belt and beyond on this portal. Now, as they progress in their belt colors, they'll unlock the access themselves. What it does it means that if, for example, from a parents point of view, mom and dad are at home. There was a question in class about what skills are being done. They can quickly go to the portal, log in, and there you go. Now, you have your own instructor in your living room that will tell you exactly how to do things so little Johnny or Mary can actually copy off the video right then and there, and mom and dad now become the expert instructor. Because they..."I told. I told you that was this skill." From a student point of view, it'll never take away that live contact, as I mentioned before, but it's a great supplementary way that they can actually still learn while they may be on vacation or just may be away at any given moment, especially for the guys that work away in the mines, especially here in WA. It's the fly in fly out guys, this is perfect for them. Alex: Yes, absolutely. It does seem, though, possibly from somebody who is starting out, this seems like an immense journey to get all of this online, but I suppose like you say if you just do this step by step as you are going along, then suddenly you realize you've all this content, and it's all there, and you've managed it. Phil: We actually originally thought, "Well, who are we going to impact the most?" So it's our new members who don't know about this. So if we just go three months ahead of our new members and continue to be three months ahead, well then by the time that guy got to black belt or whatever it may be, then they would not know any different. So you can do it that way or you can do it the whole hog way and just go boom and smash it all out. It's like Graham said, it's a great supplement. It's never going to replace being there at the Dojo, having the instructor hands-on. This is nothing like that. But to have that ability to, I suppose, give someone the opportunity to train anywhere in the world and learn the skills of Martial Arts, both physically, emotionally, mentally has been huge. And it's great for retention as well because when you are in a join up meeting, and you are talking about membership, and you say, "By the way, we have an online training portal." And it's just like another whole business in itself. And it's like, "Wow, all this value I'm getting. It's amazing." And really, in the end of it, it is only a very small cost for the owner to fork out to be able to have this online training portal. And it creates massive retention, massive value for your business, and your current students. Graham: Alex, I guess, something for the guys and listeners to remember this, as a Martial Artist they've walked a journey. They've spent a lot of time doing what they are doing. I remember the very first time you walk into a studio or a school and you think, "Geeze, how can I ever be as good as that instructor or as good as them?" It takes time. You're never going to go from 0 to 100 in a second. It's going to take you those one foot in front of the other and really that's what it is about. It's just saying, "Well, look in the next five years, it's going to be the norm." Why not start the process now or at least investigate so you've got a head start. And it's a great complimentary tool for the way the industry is going. Alex: And the way society is going. You've got to be online as well. Graham: Technology is taking over and you have to embrace it or get left behind unfortunately. Alex: Indeed. Okay, boys, thank you very much indeed for joining me. Graham: Pleasure. Man: You've been listening to the Martial Arts Business Success Podcast. For more information, please visit our website at tima.com.au.

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