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The Meeting Planners podcast source for what’s new and exciting in meetings and events industry!
Interview with Debbie Newton President of ID & C Consulting on Industrial Design & Development
Mike McAllen of Grass Shack Events & Media

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Brought to you by Grass Shack Events & Media
Copyright 2009 MeetingsPodcast

Transcripts:

Mike McAllen:     Welcome back to the meetings podcast. This is Mike McAllen with Grass Shack Events and Media and today on the phone, we have Debbie Newton, President of ID & C Consulting. Hi, Debbie.

Debbie Newton:     Hello, Michael.

Mike McAllen:     How are you doing today?

Debbie Newton:     I’m doing quite fine. Thank you.

Mike McAllen:     [laughs] Okay, great. So, why don’t you tell us a little bit about your self and how you got involved in this crazy business of consulting for training?

Debbie Newton:     Well, actually, I’ve always had an interest in science and education and I consider my self to be very fortunate in that I was able to take my education that I received and work within the pharmaceutical industry thereby allowing me to develop training programs within the science industry. So I really get to combine both of the things that I love.

Mike McAllen:     Yes, it’s a perfect fit. So, what education did you get? Are you a community college graduate?

Debbie Newton:     No. I actually received my bachelor’s degree in education. It was education and I also received and a minor in Psych and then I received my masters degree inhttp://media.libsyn.com/media/meetingspodcast/Extra_Interview_with_Debra_Newton_of_President_of_ID__C_Consulting.mp3. I – what is that? Well, basically what it is, is it provides you with a systematic process to design and develop instruction that enhances learning based on adult learning principles and systematic design.

Mike McAllen:     Okay. So that means that you will set up training programs basically for – I – for me to hear that, I’m sorry. I’m a simple man from a production background and …

Debbie Newton:     [laughs]

Mike McAllen:     [laughs] So you set up the whole – you design and develop the whole system for pharmaceutical companies to …

Debbie Newton:     Yes, it can be anything from a specific training program so it could be a one time meeting, a one time training session or it could be as big as an entire curriculum for, let’s say, these sales professionals or for the managers. So, it’s the same principles that you use. It’s just when you’re developing your curriculum, it’s on a larger scale.

Mike McAllen:     Okay. So, talk about your experience a little bit. So, what did you do after you got out of school?

Debbie Newton:     I basically worked in – I started right in the pharmaceutical industry on the manufacturing side. I worked for a company called GC Hanford in Syracuse, New York and what I did there was I actually began to teach sort of HazMat training and good manufacturing practices, et cetera and that was really an interesting combination to be able to take the learning processes that I had learned from my masters degree and apply it to a manufacturing facility. And then went beyond that into developing training programs for them beyond the line workers into the – up to the president, actually.

Mike McAllen:     So that’s interesting. So – for HazMat – so you were totally like in the suits and everything doing that kind of stuff?

Debbie Newton:     You got it. Yes, we even did training at one point. [laughs]

Mike McAllen:     How funny. So, what kind of businesses or industries have you worked with then?

Debbie Newton:     I have worked mostly in the pharmaceutical industry in my 15 years. However, I have done some stuff for the banking industry and also a few law firms. The beauty of the instructional design and development degree is that the process you use to develop instruction and training is the same no matter what the content is. It just so happens that I fell into the pharmaceutical world right away and again, going back to my love of science, it allows me to [Indiscernible] [0:04:22 two things I really care about.

Mike McAllen:     That’s very cool. That’s great when you can find something like that. I know I went to school for sociology and then I became a fireman.

Debbie Newton:     Exactly. Right. I mean it’s based – you aren’t far between those people who actually say, “I used my degree. Yes, I do. I use my degree.” [laughs]

Mike McAllen:     Yes, that’s so great. Yes. I went and got a degree in sociology. Went to work as a fireman for a bunch of years and then now, I [Inaudible] [0:04:45] company. So [laughs] it doesn’t make sense at all. So what are your areas of specialty then?

Debbie Newton:     Well, I believe that my instructional design background really enables me to ask the right questions to truly determine my client needs. I think one of the – so often actually in training or when meetings are designed with the clients, those needs aren’t truly met because they haven’t been clearly defined upfront. My degree taught me to first establish the needs through a needs assessment process and then determine what the training or meeting is trying to accomplish.

And, you know, it’s funny. I’m constantly amazed when I ask clients. You know, what do you want participants to be able to do at the end of this program? And they look at me with a blank stare on their face. [laughs] And I’m like, okay, you just know that you need training but you don’t know what you want them to be able to do and it seems like a basic question but it is actually something that I spent a lot of time with my clients on, really defining what specific behaviors do you want them to demonstrate at the end of this training program. And then that really allows me to develop sound programs that will accomplish the goals they’re trying to accomplish.

Mike McAllen:     Yes, it’s interesting because I have similar questions from my clients when we, you know, start up an event too to say, “You know what – you know, are you trying to educate these people?” Do you want to look at – do you want to motivate it or do you want them networking? You know, what are the goals of these meetings? And it’s interesting that they basically should start with you and then come to me.

Debbie Newton:     Well, it’s often – you know, when you’re doing a true needs assessment which rarely gets done honestly, you know, usually have people coming to you saying, “Okay, we need a training program on X.” And one of the things that I really worked hard on in the 15 years that I’ve been in the industry is working with my clients at the time that were internal to the pharmaceutical companies I was working at and saying, “Well, why don’t you talk to me first a little bit about what you want to have happen here? You know, what are your goals, what do you see them being able to do?” And would often find out that it wasn’t a training program they needed at all. It was an educational piece or it was a motivational piece or it might have been something else that was outside the scope of training. And, you know, that’s when you’ll find people – you know, when they’re trying to tackle something that’s not truly a training project, that’s from the training project sales because of course, you can accomplish, you know, something else.

Mike McAllen:     Right. So what are the types of things you provide for clients then?

Debbie Newton:     Well, obviously, my background and my education but it’s also the way I approach projects. You know, I really want the end product to make a difference and I’m invested and committed to making sure that happens, you know. To me it’s not just about, let’s create a training program or let’s develop a curriculum just to say that we have it and it’s done. I mean I really want the clients to see results from what we’re doing. And sometimes, it can be small, tiny things that you change and alter within a program that can get you a big impact on the other end and you suddenly see learners, you know, begin to ask the right questions or to begin to understand the material in a different way and that’s what I’m looking for. That’s why I do what I do.

Mike McAllen:     So what’s the typical scenario then of working with a client? How does it usually roll?

Debbie Newton:     Well, the – I use a standard process when I’m working with clients and, you know, as I mentioned earlier, the very first thing I want to do is identify the true needs and then the gaps and learning. You know, I have a series of questions that I ask my clients to really get them to be specific in what they’re looking for and then that leads right into the next step which is the learning objectives and like I mentioned earlier, the question that I asked is, “What do you want people to be able to do when they leave this training program?” And I specifically write that stuff down and we make sure that the program does that.

And the next step then is to determine the appropriate instructional strategy or the medium then you accelerate to accomplish those objectives. So once I have those objectives listed, I say, “Okay, based on this objective, what’s the best strategy for that?” Is it classroom training? Is it online learning? You know, what type of medium? Is it – you know, we’re going to some audio. We’re going to use some video. It goes through all of that because my education has taught me what works best.

For instance, if I’m doing a listening skills program, probably the best instructional strategy is not online learning. I mean, listening skills is something that you have to practice with another human being. Now we’ve made a lot of leaps and bounds in online learning and there are some technologies that you can use to practice that a bit but if I want to have a very effective training program for listening skills, I want to have some role play happening in a live situation. So, that helps you decide the instructional strategy medium.

And then the next is to develop the program. And then after the program is developed, you know, two of the steps that end up getting left off most often is to, you know, really create an evaluation plan. How are we going to evaluate that this program was effective? And then the last step is how are we going to sustain this? And make sure that what has been learned is being implemented, you know, whether it’s in the field in the case of pharmaceutical or in the – you know, within the world that these people are working in and it’s not a one-time learning situation where they learn something. Yes, it was great. Then they go back to work and forget about it, you know.

So what are the strategies that you’re applying to make sure that that information is being incorporated back into their real job?

Mike McAllen:     So interesting. It’s a lot like what we do too to try and get them to look at ways they can – you know, whatever they’re giving the – at the event to make sure that they can follow up, to make sure it keeps going and that’s fantastic that you do that ahead of time. Again, a lot of times that we don’t get the luxury of doing that with our people but …

Debbie Newton:     Right.

Mike McAllen:     I mean with our clients because once they’re out the door, they’re on to the next thing.  But it is – that’s very interesting. So what kind of – what types of programs do you – or offerings do you have then for this stuff?

Debbie Newton:     Well, actually, my areas that I really specialize in are curriculum design. So, like I had mentioned, maybe you’re doing a curriculum for the sales reps or for the managers or, you know, these days in the pharmaceutical industry, you have so many other different roles happening. You have, you know, manage people and, you know, what’s their curriculum. Oh, gee, we have a rep that sells specialty products. Well that’s different than selling, you know, regular pharmaceuticals. So, how is their curriculum different and what types of training should they be getting that’s, you know – or that’s different than anybody else?

So there’s curriculum design, workshop, meeting development. I do marketing pieces as you can much imagine the process of identifying needs and developing stuff is very similar in developing marketing pieces.

Coaching tools, I’ve done a lot of work on management training, leadership training, conflict resolution, listening skills and as always, I’m trying to teach other people instructional design.

So many of our training people in the pharmaceutical industry get their jobs by moving up in the company. So they’ve been a sales rep, they may have been a sales manager and then they come in house as we call it into the corporate office and then they are tasked with putting together effective training programs and they have no background in instructional design whatsoever. So they’re – you know, they’re really at a loss of how to do this. So I spent a lot of time, you know, not only doing content work but really trying to educate people on instructional design and the importance of instructional design.

Mike McAllen:     It sounds like a perfect place to pull you in as a consultant though. Perfect. So, how would people get a hold of you if they want to get a hold of you and learn more?

Debbie Newton:     Well, you can always get a hold of me by phone. My phone number is 631-680-1655 or by email which is NDLNewton@OptOnline.net.

Mike McAllen:     Great. And I’ll put that link on the website too so people can get a hold of you.

Debbie Newton:     Wonderful.

Mike McAllen:     Which is perfect.

Debbie Newton:     Beautiful.

Mike McAllen:     Thank you, Debbie very much for talking to me. And I hope we can get together and have more of these conversations about all this stuff that you’re doing. It’s just …

Debbie Newton:     Great.

Mike McAllen:     … a great addition. So I will talk to you later. Thank you so much.

Debbie Newton:     Alright. Thank you, Michael.

Mike McAllen:     Bye-bye.

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