After investing in a Webinar service with White Board capacity, I came across this much simpler and timely service. Please note this is EVERTHING you need to know about the teleclass today:

New Venue Please Note

EVENT:  Platinum Rule Associates Teleseminar

DATE & TIME: Thursday, May 31st at 3:00pm Eastern

FORMAT: Simulcast! (Attend via Phone or Webcast — it’s your choice)

TO ATTEND THIS EVENT, CLICK THIS LINK NOW… http://instantTeleseminar.com/?eventid=157971

You can call in if you want to talk or listen via the web.  Your choice.  Nothing to download.  Check it out now.  

The price reduction for purchases of assessment credits is now underway. You have 48 hours to make your purchases before the prices return to normal.

You can obtain a $5 reduction across the board for orders between May 31st and June 1^st.  Please keep in mind that you won’t get your Reminder Cards until mid June.  

In a previous post I mentioned how you can use a special “invitation link” to distribute a large amount of assessments without having to type each and every name and email into the system and then track them all. This is especially useful if you are working with one organziation because you can track the email addresses and see if someone “outside” the organzition has used the link. As well, all assessments used can be charged back to the company. More importantly, it is a great way to avoid your emails getting caught up as SPAM.

Another handy feature is if you DO want to send individual emails but there are lots of participants, you can inport them from an excel spreadsheet so that it is not a long manual exercise.

Both of these features are turned off (default) so let me know in an email if you want them turned on for you and I will do it.

I am just about to purchase another batch from you and have one question.  Fifteen of the people don’t have email addresses.  However, they can use a central system.  Is there any way to distribute them this way?

Yes, they can use a central system and what might make even more sense is to use a “universal” invitation link that you set up so that they can just log in for any computer, use the URL you provide and sign up.  As long as they remember their username and password — keep it simple, they can also log into any computer anywhere (just by going to www.AssessmentsNow.com and using the member log in button.)  They will have to put in an email address – the system requires it but it could all be the same (even a fake one works as long as the usernames and passwords are remembered.)  This link needs to be monitored as anyone who knows it can use it and take the assessment from your credits and system.

The default has this feature turned off.  If you want it on, let me know.  Then when I notify you, you can sign into your admin panel for your associate account and look for “invitation link” tab on the left column.  Click on the tab and you can create your own special link – explanations will be there.  You then give out that link to those you want to take it.  It is NOT sent to anyone by the system.  You have to manage that part.  Be careful to “erase” the link after you are completed with your project or it remains active and others can use it if they know the link. 

When the training with Platinum Rule is being rolled out within an the organization, you might want to consider offering the PR Reminder Cards as a bonus and build it into your price structure. The regular price is $6 retail but I have in the past got a price from Tony with a minimum order of 100 and I basically offer it out at my cost which $3 each.  I usually order 100 and split it up if necessary between a couple of people. But I do have to use someone in the US for this so I can “eat” the shipping costs.  I give a few extra to the person in appreciation.  I only like to do this once a year but I do have a couple of others interested for me to make the offer again soon.  This is not a money thing for me but it is such a great add on to a training program. 

One of your colleagues just had a very successful half day training and is proposing another for a different group in the organization.  Her question is as follows with my rather lengthy reponse:

My raving fan said I might want to be a little more high-level/intellectual for this new group – for example, not do the celebrity exercise (many of the docs do not even watch TV – I don’t either, so I can relate ) and she said probably good to do less role playing (the scripts in your training material like the office conversation) and more of discussing real life situational challenges they face and how to use the PR to help.

Given the group, your observations make perfect sense.  I too never use the “celeb” exercise. I use the examples in the book more as case studies not role plays.  I think real examples either as cases or role plays (which most participants hate by the way) is excellent if you can get it.  Another option that takes little effort is to use one of the cases that might relate to the group and “personalize” it to the organization.  As you know, I have found that “No Free Lunch” is an amazing case study if you can divide the group up into the four types and see how each type would “resolve” the issue.  Seeing the different assumptions, values and “answers” coming out is amazing.  As usual – it is all in the debrief.  Another variation is from an MBTI exercise I have used.  Divide them up by quadrant and tell them that they have all been selected to go to a conference to present a joint paper.  Unfortunately they have just received word that the budget has been cut and there will only be funding for all less one person.  Have them problem solve and determine their solution – using one of the real people – not abstract.  Debrief the process they used, assumptions, criteria they used to make the final decion.  This really brings out those that are task versus relationship differences. 

If you can get someone to give you a couple of REAL scenarios before the course the better.  That way they can be “confidential” and you don’t end up with a pregnant pause waiting for someone to give an issue that they have.  Having your own “stories” can be very useful.  So if you could draw from past sessions that might also be quite powerful.  I love to tell the story that really made a difference and to this day makes me continue to do what I do.  True story with some of the dialogue changed because it has been about a dozen years or so ago.  I was working with a group of scientists “down east” in a small well knit community doing Platinum Rule (in a social styles format but same model) as part of a two day communication skills training for supervisors with the government.  As you can imagine most of them where Thinkers (no Relaters at all).  The morning of the second day one of the participants came up to me and said:  “You know it really hit me what you said yesterday and I realized that my admin assistant is a Relater and she probably really thinks that I am a jerk most of the time.  I never tell her how much I think she does a great job.  She has been sick this week so I drove over to her house last night and told her that my style is such that I may be abrupt and quiet and critical but I could not manage without her.”  I asked her how she responded.  He said, “She looked at me like I was crazy and said it was no big deal but she had a big smile on her face.”  He smiled at me and added:  “Maybe there is something to this touchy feely stuff after all…. but I am not changing.”  I responded:  “And you don’t have to – just learn to be more flexible, which it sounds like you are doing.”

Some trainers have told me that using an exercise of how each type would set up their office space is a fun way for them to understand the four quadrants.  I  still like to use the what each type wants from meetings.  We talked about this in our training to make sure we cover off all the needs of participants.  At the beginning of a class, I have even taken the agenda in one training and torn it up.  I then asked each person to quickly write down on a post-it note their immediate reaction.  Then I collected them, read some of them out and discuss how we all have different needs.  (I then reassure all types that we will be following a set format but it will be flexible enough for us to cover areas that are of interest to everyone.)

Here is another typical issue and how to solve it.

I have sent out a reminder of an assessment that I want a client to complete. They haven’t received it yet and that was a few hours ago.

You need to determine if they got the first invitation? If yes, then that means it had gotten through at least once. Otherwise it could be a server problem. Have them check thier Junk folder. If they haven’t received the reminder (should be almost immediately) it is because the ISP considers something coming from AssessmentsNow.com as spam and dumps it. I have the same problem, I NEVER could get my regular email to work and so I use an alternative one instead.

There is nothing we can do about this as more and more people and ISP are putting up road blocks – even if you white list the site, it may not work. We have put in systems to try to work around this for associates. Go to: View Distributed Assessments and look for

Select a group from the list below

	Are your members not receiving emails Click Here.
	Send reminders to multiple users Click Here.
	Delete multiple users Click Here.
	Add multiple users to a group Click Here.

click on

Are your members not receiving emails Click Here. and follow instructions

For members sending to observers – they can use a link and import it into their outlook with instructions and send it out. Their instructions are as follows:

You have TWO options to send out observer invitations.

First, in the fields below, simply type in the observer’s first name and last name, their email address, and how you know them, and click “Invite Observers“—that’s it. The rest is totally automated. You can also send reminders out at a future date.

OR

You can send a link to observers via your own email program (e.g., Outlook, etc.) click here.
After you click on the above link, type in your message to your observers and send the email.
You could cut and paste the default invitation email copy into your personal email program, if desired.
Make sure not to delete the supplied link when adding your personal message to your observers.

One of the Associates recently completed a training session using The Platinum Rule and had a couple of great questions. Here they are with my answers:

Everyone has taken the assessment, but I did not let them see their results. I am bringing their results/report to the seminar. My questions are:

1. If I switch the tab to allow them to view results after the seminar, how do they see the results – i.e. do I send them a link? An email? Does the system notify them? No the system doesn’t notify them. Tell them at your seminar that the results will be released on XXX and that they should log into the system to send out more observers, generate their report etc.
2. And how long will it be available for them to see? (They are still getting more observes.) I seem to recall 30 days. From the moment that they complete it they have 30 more days to invite observers and then another 30 days (60 in total) to access their site. If after that time they want to extend the time – they can purchase another 30 or 60 days for a minimal fee. The system prompts them if they try to log in or invite observers after the time limit. You CAN NOT extend it or purchase an extension for them – they have to do it.
3. And what does “”archive” mean? If you have a whole bunch of clients and it becomes cumbersome to keep track, you can put them into archive and they “disappear” from your records – BUT of course you can pull them back in. My recommendation is NOT TO use this feature. I have a few hundred in some of my accounts and don’t archive
   

While the promotion wasn’t the success that I had hoped, I have now set up the final system to contact past users to see if they would like an extension. In addition, we do have a good number of past users who have subscribed to the 52weekly tips.

Here is what will be a part of each email that goes out and what the final contact notice will say. If you have suggestions please let me know.

All client invitation letters have been updated to include the following notice:

* You will see that there is a fourth category labeled: This is for follow-up data ONLY. This has been designed for those clients who want to extend their evaluation period at a future time in order to get additional feedback for comparison purposes. You will receive our last email telling you about this option in about six months along with the option of subscribing to our 52 weekly email tips on The Platinum Rule..

Please note that this email is coming from Assessments Now, an authorized user of The Platinum Rule and licensed from Tony Alessandra and Associates. Full disclosure and contact information can be found at: https://assessmentsnow.com/privacy.asp?privacy=platinum

The email that will be sent will look like this one:

This is the final notification from Assessments Now to remind you that you can extend your feedback period and receive our 52 email tips if you have not done so.
You experienced the The Platinum Rule on {!custom order date} where we mentioned this followup.

In case you have forgotten, your personal/private access is:
username: {!custom username}
password: {!custom password}
Login: https://assessmentsnow.com/assessmentlogin.asp

EXTRA: Confirm to get 52 weekly tips

———————————————————–
CONFIRM BY VISITING THE LINK BELOW:

http://secure.aweber.com/z/c/?xxxxxxxx

Click the link above to give us permission to send you
information. It’s fast and easy! If you cannot click the
full URL above, please copy and paste it into your web
browser.

———————————————————–
If you do not want to subscribe, simply ignore this message.

For more details: http://www.wghill.com/retake.htm

Thank You,

Roberta Hill
Owner, Assessments Now

I was not able to record the class. While the idea of using WebEx is great – if I use the Skype system it does use up too much banned width and I started to break up. WebEx does provide a phone number but again this just adds to the cost. I will continue to use Skype for some teleclasses but the good news is that I have found another exciting product for my own “private meeting room”. More good news is that has motivated me to have another impromptu session in a couple of weeks. So if you are willing to tolerate my exploration into the technology – this will prove to be very exciting, I will record it, you can save the chat AND we will have more news and updates . . . like the case of “Susan” below.

During our session on Monday we looked at a live case with the eGraph of “Susan” who recently purchased a 60 day extension and got another dozen people to complete the assessment on her three years later. The eGraph is posted on http://www.wghill.com/AssessmentsNow/eGraph.htm I will be revisiting the story of “Susan” as she got in touch with me and gave me permission to use her situation in my training

Here is part of what she had to say: “I thought it was quite good when I initially did the platinum rule. Over the past 4 years I have had some significant things happen at work which were not always pleasant so I thought that I would try to modify some of my behaviors to get better results from the staff that I manage.