Developing Professional Trainers for 35 years for Fortune 500 Companies

    ESF Products...

ESF offers workshops at your site to train you how to become Professional Trainers in all area of your training job:

Workshops

IDLS-ProTrainer 1

Training Needs Analysis

Interactive Teaching Skills

Developing Skills Labs

Working with Challenging Learners

Return on Investment (ROI)

Managing Your Training Department

Materials

IDLS-ProTrainer 1

Training Needs Analysis

Interactive Teaching Skills

Developing Skills Labs

Working with Challenging Learners

Return on Investment (ROI)

Managing Your Training Department

Software

TaskOutliner

StyleDoc

PhoneCenter Store Logo

PhoneCenter Store
Pioneer Shoppe
December 1986
St. Louis, Missouri.

Hari-Krishnas

Whirling Dervish

Frame Creation System
NAPLPS Editor

Weather Map
Designed Using AT&T's
Frame Creation System

ESF, Inc.
Drs. Peter & Mary Esseff
11415 Georgetown Circle
Tampa, FL 33635-1560
Phone: 813.814.1192
Fax: 813.814.1194
Mary@ESF-ProTrainer.com
Peter@ESF-ProTrainer.com



   Selected Clients

  • 3M
  • AAA
  • Adam Opel
  • American Correctional Association
  • Amtrak
  • AT&T: Training Revision Guidelines
  • AT&T: Five-Year Plan for Computer-Based Training
  • AT&T/Mountain Bell: PhoneCenter Store
  • AT&T: Videotex & NAPLPS
  • Bell Labs
  • Carter Oil
  • Church of the Latter Day Saints: Genealogical Society
  • Dow Chemical: Capital Project
  • Dow Chemical: Diamond Service (SAP)
  • Dow Chemical: CSR Training: Europe
  • Dow Chemical: CSR Training: US
  • Dow Chemical: Accounting
  • Esso Australia
  • Esso International
  • EXXON: STIP
  • FDA
  • FedEx Start-Up
  • FedEx Newark & Dallas/ Fort Worth New Hubs
  • General Motors: Corporate
  • General Motors: ProTrainer Series
  • General Motors: Human Resource Center
  • Goodyear
  • Glaxco
  • Hoffman-LaRoche
  • IBM
  • Illinois Department of Corrections
  • James River
  • Kingdom of Saudi Arabia: Ma'aden Gold Mines
  • Merck
  • Maryland Community Colleges
  • Maryland Corrections
  • Maryland Juvenile Services
  • Maryland Police Training Commission
  • Merck Pharmaceutical
  • Metropolitan D. C. Police Department
  • Monterrey Coal
  • Mountain Bell
  • National Apartment Association
  • NASD
  • Navy Comptroller: JUMPS
  • Navy Comptroller: NIF
  • Ortho-McNeil
  • R. R. Donnelley
  • Sandvik Sorting Systems
  • Saturn
  • Schering-Plough
  • Schering-Plough, Ireland
  • Shell Oil: AutoCare
  • Shell Oil: Financial Management
  • The Rouse Company
  • Rochester Products
  • Timken
  • Training Institutes: Coppin State, Hampton Institute, Morgan State
  • Union Oil Company
  • United Way
  • Unisys
  • Wachovia
  • Warner-Lambert

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AT&T Projects ...

AT&T PhoneCenter Stores

In 1982, an antitrust suit settlement agreement (United States Department of Justice vs. the American Telephone and Telegraph Company) required the divestiture of the Bell Operating Companies from AT&T. This Agreement changed the way Americans were able to obtain phone service. Previously, AT&T and had a monopoly on supplying service to customers and Americans leased all their phones from AT&T. In preparation for this expected divestiture decision, in 1979, AT&T developed a strategy to sell phones to the public and began an effort that ultimately would open hundreds of PhoneCenter Stores in Malls throughout the United States.

Another consulting group had been working with AT&T to carry out this plan, but were unable to transition from their series of objectives, outcomes and results to a viable training program. They knew what the training should entail, but had no process to produce it. In April of 1982, when AT&T knew it was due to open over a hundred stores by October, ESF was called in to rescue the effort. By that time, in addition to the consultants, a Task Force of Bell employees from around the country had been working for a couple of years at the Mountain Bell Training Center in Lakeland, Colorado.

When we arrived on site, in addition to developing the training materials, we had to put several support systems in place. First, using our proprietary IDLS systems approach, we had to train the Task Force in how to design, develop, and validate instructional materials. Then, we had to organize the typing staff and create a "filing system" on their network of computers so that they were always working on the most current versions of the modules. Before that, a typist frequently incorporated revisions into an old version of a module. Only when we proofed the module did we notice the "newest" version did not include materials that we knew had been typed and given to us previously. We also had to a create a graphics department so we could insert visuals into the training materials. This included everything from setting aside a room to be used just for graphics, to buying equipment, supplies, and furniture so the artists had everything at their fingertips. Although it seems inconceivable to our younger generation, there was no way at that time to include graphics in text-based computer pages. The typists had to leave space for the graphics, which were drawn by hand, then literally pasted onto the printout from the computer. This is how the term "cut and paste" originated.Although hired originally to supervise the development process, the time was so tight, we had to do anything that needed to be done: develop materials, proof everything, cut and paste graphics, report weekly to management that progress was being made.

Within seven months, ESF had supervised and developed a comprehensive individualized system of instruction for all the personnel in the Bell System PhoneCenter Stores. We piloted the programs in October 1982. Over 1,500 PhoneCenter Stores in the Bell System throughout the United States benefited from this training.

These courses included training for the following PhoneCenter Store employees:

  • Sales Personnel
  • Supply Attendant/Clerks
  • Supervisors
  • Managers
  • Greeters
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AT&T's Training Guidelines Revision

ESF contracted with AT&T to revise its training materials design, development, and validation Guidelines. ESF used its own proprietary IDLS process as the basis for the revisions. The entire Bell System used these Guidelines for developing their own training materials.

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AT&T's Five-Year Plan for Computer-Based Training

ESF was contracted by AT&T to prepare its five-year plan to use the computer to assist in the training of its employees. The plan included the development of computer software and hardware.

In the middle of December, 1981, Head of Training at Mountain Bell called ESF requesting an immediate meeting at their Lakeland Center. Although Peter was conducting a workshop at another company, Mary flew out the next day to find out what the urgent request was about. It seemed that AT&T had requested Mountain Bell to coordinate a project to develop a Five-Year Plan for Computer-Based Training within AT&T. The Task Force had worked on the project for a year and had not been able to come up with any report they could submit by the deadline, January 2. They had a little over 3 weeks to complete the project with nothing in hand. They asked us if we could take over leadership of the Task Force and come up with the Five-Year Plan. Of course, we said yes.

Mary, who has the ability to see the whole picture immediately, gathered together the Task Force consisting of people who worked somewhere within the AT&T system as well as a few who were private consultants, and first looked at what they were currently doing (not much), and how they could best assist in the overall effort using the skills they had. Together they came up with five different areas that needed to be included in the report. Reviewing the strengths of each Task Force member, Mary assigned tasks to be completed within each area and gave tight deadlines to complete their tasks. Working right through the Christmas holidays, the Task Force completed the mission on December 31st and Peter and Mary presented the final report to the head of the Training Center. Mary did a one-page précis on January 1, and on January 2nd, 1982 the final report was sent to AT&T corporate.

The interesting part of this project was the cutting-edge ideas were never implemented because on January 8, 1982, AT&T agreed to a settlement of the antitrust suit proposed by the Justice Department. The settlement required the breakup of the Bell System which went into effect January 1984. This was the end of the monopoly that AT&T enjoyed since its origin.

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AT&T's NAPLPS Videotex Sales Training Program

In 1984, AT&T's Information Systems Services Division asked ESF to design, develop, and validate a self-instructional Initial Training Program for AT&T's national sales organization for marketing AT&T's Videotex System. NAPLPS (North American Presentation Level Protocol Syntax) is an international standard for Videotex service. NAPLPS, a graphics language for use originally with videotex services, was an incredibly advanced (for the time) method of incorporating graphics into text-based computers. AT&T was marketing a "Frame Creation System", which was being developed initially for the real estate industry to agents could show their clients homes throughout the area without leaving the comfort of their office. AT&T also announced a system that could convert photos and drawings into videotex frames in about 15 seconds, and a slide-maker peripheral unit for the AT&T Frame Creation System. The slide maker could provide visuals for meetings, training programs and sales presentations, and was priced at $3,500. The Frame Creation System worked similarly to a modern graphics tablet but weighed a ton (not literally) and cost over a hundred thousand dollars. Yet it was so exciting to imagine that a product like this was on the horizon and might eventually filter down to individual users.

Modules in the Program included:

  • Videotex Applications:
  • Banking and Insurance
  • Publishing, Advertising and Direct Marketing
  • Sales Strategies
  • Product Knowledge of Videotex System:
  • ISO Levels 1-5
  • ISO Level 6, Section 1
  • ISO Level 6, Section 2
  • Selling Products:
  • Personal Styles of Buying and Selling FSC
  • Plan Sales Presentations
  • Sales Presentations Techniques: Listening, Observing, Questioning
  • The Sales Cycle
  • Leasing Programs
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AT&T's NAPLPS Videotex Technical Services Training Program


Later in 1984, AT&T requested ESF to develop a second self-instructional training program for the Technical Service Representatives to teach them all the technical aspects of installing and servicing the videotex systems. A portion of the program was delivered via the videotex system. This was the first training program in the country delivered via videotex. At this point, there were less than ten Technical Service Representatives in the country.

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Nostalgia: Juggling Motherhood and Work

From Journal of Life's Little Lessons by Mary Sullivan Esseff.

For seven months, every Sunday night, either Peter or I, or sometimes both of us, boarded a plane out of Baltimore-Washington International Airport (BWI) and headed to the Denver Airport. In the midst of Hare Krishnas and Whirling Dervishes, we made our way to the baggage area to pick up our bags, then picked up a cab. We never had to pay the driver, for Mountain Bell had a prearrangement with the cab service to pay all its fares through the training center.

At the Training Center, we checked into our room, left our bags, and went to the area designated for the PhoneCenter Store development project. Throughout the week, we reviewed all the modules being developed. We made sure all the tasks the learner had to perform were included in the Task Analysis, all the test questions tested the knowledge skills inherent in those tasks, the narrative included only "need-to-know" information about how to perform those tasks, the graphics also supported those tasks, and the Skills Labs tested whether the learner could perform the tasks 100% of the time.

At the time of this project, we had three children, the oldest 13, the youngest three. Although we had a capable person staying with the children and a fantastic neighbor who spoiled them silly, we always felt guilty leaving them especially if both of us had to go. Peter had already gone Sunday afternoon to do a workshop for General Motors, now I was leaving to go to Mountain Bell for the week.

I had already kissed Jeanne and Alice, our two girls goodbye. Now I walked down the hall to say goodbye to my youngest, Peter. I always had a deep feeling of guilt leaving him especially because he was so young and loved to come in our room and nestle with us when he woke early in the morning. This Monday morning, again feeling my reluctance to leave him for the week, I went in to kiss him goodbye.

Thinking he was sleeping soundly, I bent to kiss his soft cheek and stroked his blond hair. "Bye, Peter," I whispered. "Be a good boy for Carmen. I'll see you Friday. I love you." His eyes opened instantly. I thought he might make a fuss, but instead he gave me a big hug and kiss and said, "I love you, too, Mom. Have a nice trip. See you Friday." As I left the room, I heard him say, almost to himself, perhaps as an afterthought, "Oh well, I guess I'll just have to go downstairs and watch television."

What a great lesson this was for me. I was astounded at how well children take things in stride. I had been worried about what I thought his reaction would be, yet he had an alternative that, though maybe not JUST as pleasing to him as nestling next to me, was certainly something he could live with. I went to Denver thanking God for sending this wise little soul to love and care for me, and teach me yet another of life's lessons: our fears are often far greater than the actuality of whatever it is we dread. To overcome our fears is a way to allow us to grow in maturity and spirituality. And...it permits us to face the next challenge with a bit less trepidation.

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