Simulation Software
946 Lydia Drive
Roseville, MN 55113-1924 U.S.A.
e-mail: rouda@alumni.caltech.edu
Internet Home Page: http://www.alumni.caltech.edu/~rouda/
Specializing in Instructional Systems Design and Technology
for Individuals and Organizations
- Excellence in systematic instructional design
- Applying technology to improve the efficacy of training
- Individual development planning
- Needs assessment by individuals using 360-degree feedback
- Development of personal learning strategies and plans
- Setting individual instructional goals and objectives
- Integrating individual development into organizational systems
Consulting Services and Information Index
Human Resource Development
Training and Development
Organization Development
Career Development
about Simulation Software, our organization --
- SimSoft was founded in Wisconsin in 1983.
- SimSoft developed FlowCalc, the first microcomputer program for pulp and paper industry process modeling and simulation.
- SimSoft originally was formed to design and present computer-based technical training, combining computer science with applied chemical engineering.
- SimSoft expanded in 1994 to deliver a full range of human resource development services.
- SimSoft is based in the Twin Cities of Minnesota.
- SimSoft provides services internationally in software and training.
- SimSoft is one of the few organizations to combine both our technical ("left brain")
and creative ("right brain") sides to business and industrial problems.
"To effectively manage change, we must not only be excellent in applying technology,
but also must understand and manage our people and our organizations."
- We are affiliated with an extensive network of HR development and human performance specialists.
- We help organizations improve performance and profitability by maximizing the efficiency and performance of their people.
- We work with you to develop a STRATEGIC, SYSTEMATIC PLAN for human resource development to enhance knowledge and skills,
actions and standards, motivation, incentives, attitudes and work environments.
- We can help you get started.
- Let us work with you to decide --
- Is training the answer?
- Is training a cost or an investment?
- Should the solution lie with training, organization development, career development, or a combination of strategies?
go back up to the Consulting Services and Information Index
Why invest in people?
- Today it is the preparation of the workforce for optimum performance that gives the competitive
advantage.
- A more relevant, business-focused training and human development function -- distributed and integrated
appropriately throughout the organization -- will not only be more in line with organizational performance and profitability,
but will help to bring the rest of the organization along towards reaching the goal of having effective, efficient, and performing teams.
- Training and organization development are investments, not costs.
go back up to the Consulting Services and Information Index
Justifying your training investments
What do you want from your training programs?
- REACTION -- Evaluate the training program itself
(are the trainees satisfied?).
- LEARNING -- Focus on changes in the participants as a result of the training
(have skills, knowledge, or attitudes changed as a result of the training?).
- PERFORMANCE -- Is the learning being transferred to the job or organization
(are the results of the training being applied)?
- RESULTS -- What is the impact of the training on the organization's productivity and profitability?
(evaluate your training by the performance of individuals and the transfer of learning to the success of the organization, not only by reaction and learning.
An approach to training based on Organization Development
- We integrate a large-scale interactive process into our training design, based on the latest research into effective OD.
- The education and training of the workforce now requires the involvement of the entire organization, not just a training department.
- Effective training uses an instructional systems design process and uses high performance work teams in partnership with the rest of the organization.
Publication: High Performance Training
Publication: Large-Scale, Real-Time Organizational Change
go back up to the Consulting Services and Information Index
Instructional Systems Design -- How we go about it
Needs Assessment -- the first step
- Just as we plan, very carefully and cautiously, before making most investments in process changes and in capital and operating expenditures, we need to implement the appropriate planning for HR development.
- Proper needs assessment and planning will lead to several possible ways to improve performance, often but not limited to training.
- Publication: Needs Assessment
Program Design, Development and Evaluation
We need to consider the benefits of any HR development intervention before we just go and do it:
- What learning will be accomplished?
- What changes in behavior and performance are expected?
- Will we get them?
- What are the expected economic costs and benefits of any projected solutions?
Let us work with you, using our experience for objective independent assessment and planning.
go back up to the Consulting Services and Information Index
TRAINING & DEVELOPMENT
- Training should be a systematic, planned investment in helping people acquire knowledge, develop competencies and skills, and adopt behaviors that improve their job performance.
- We adapt and apply effective adult learning principles, instructional systems design, train-the-trainer programs, and instructional strategies and methods to your needs.
Justifying your training investment
Instructional Systems Design
go back up to the Consulting Services and Information Index
ORGANIZATION DEVELOPMENT
- Manage change using an approach based on applications of the Organization Development field.
- The education and training of the workforce now requires the involvement of the entire organization.
- Managing effective change requires a systems design process.
- ORGANIZATION DEVELOPMENT AND TRAINING ARE INVESTMENTS, NOT COSTS.
- Helping organizations improve performance and profitability by maximizing the efficiency and performance of their people and their organizational systems.
- Let us help you use Organization Development to manage change.
- Is organization development a more effective approach than training?
- Is organization development a cost or an investment?
- Should the solution lie with training, organization development, career development, or a combination of strategies?
- Let us explore your situation to help you select and design appropriate systems to assist your organization with planning change.
Making change effective
How we manage change
Is your organization ready for managed change?
Publication: Organization Development
Publication: Background and Theory for Large Scale Organizational Change Methods
go back up to the Consulting Services and Information Index
Making change effective
- Change is inevitable!
- Make change effective with a systematic, planned process.
- Effective Organization Development is --
- Planned. OD takes a long-range approach to improving organizational performance and efficiency. It avoids the usual "quick-fix".
- Organization-wide. OD focuses on the total system.
- Managed from the top. OD must have the support of top-management, and the buy-in and ownership of workers throughout the organization.
- Focused on organizational success. OD is tied to the bottom-line. Its goal is to improve the organization -- to make it more efficient and more competitive by aligning the organization's systems with its people.
Let us work with you, using our experience in change management for objective independent assessment, planning and implementation.
go back up to the Consulting Services and Information Index
How we manage change --
- Organizational buy-in and ownership --
- Bringing your people into the change process from the start
- Obtaining managerial commitment
- Assessment & Diagnosis --
- Is your organization ready for OD?
- What is the current situation?
- What is the preferred future situation?
- What will be needed to make changes happen?
- What are your priorities?
- What are the real causes of your performance problems?
- What are the possible solutions?
- Action planning --
- Providing feedback on the assessment
- Selecting proper OD interventions
- Using inclusive planning and design teams
- Change interventions --
- Using activities to make systemwide, permanent organizational changes
- Evaluation --
- Have meaningful changes been made in the performance and efficiency of your people and your organization?
- Evaluate your organization development activities by its results --
- more effective individual and team performance
- the impact on your organization's productivity and profitability
- Adoption and Maintenance --
- Establishing plans and processes to ensure that your people remain committed and that change becomes a continuing process
Publication: Organization Development
Publication: Large-Scale, Real-Time Organizational Change
Publication: Background and Theory for Large Scale Organizational Change Methods
go back up to the Consulting Services and Information Index
Is your organization ready for managed change?
- Is there dissatisfaction with the present situation?
- Do you have a vision of a preferred future?
- Are there achievable first steps towards reaching this vision?
- Are these factors sufficient to overcome the resistance to change?
go back up to the Consulting Services and Information Index
CAREER DEVELOPMENT
- We help develop systems and processes for joint career planning and management with your
employees and your organization.
- We explore strategies and tactics for individuals to survive and prosper in our rapidly-changing workplaces.
go back up to the Consulting Services and Information Index
This page is maintained by Robert Rouda.
CONTACT webmaster for information.
Last update 11/14/96.
copyright 1996 by Robert Rouda -- all rights reserved