(Washington DC)   "It's a lot like building an addition onto your house," said course architect Frank Whyte. "Half-way through, breathing dust and dodging debris, you pray that the results are worth the turmoil."

The dust and debris are metaphorical, but "turmoil" is a reasonable word to describe a training course overhaul.

Adult learning programs tend to be static in nature: Proven recipes that needn't vary from month-to-month or year-to-year. Making major changes creates a domino effect that affects printed courseware, audio/visual systems, marketing information, facilitator orientation, and course logistics.

Making a major change to a major training course is a major commitment.

We'll never forgive ourselves for changing two at the same time.

"The time had simply come," said Whyte, who pointed to a file cabinet bulging with fresh research and new ideas on time management and stress mitigation. "I found myself teaching adequate time and stress workshops, but niggled by the thought that better data had been stacking-up."

In the spring of 2003, Whyte organized his data and mustered his troops. The time had come for a new generation of Time Management and Stress Management learning.

"Time Management was my personal endeavor," Whyte said. "Time effectiveness training really hadn't changed since the early 80's... before the internet, e-mail, e-commerce, and cell phones became part of our day-to-day life. I wanted our course to be different from the stale offerings in the marketplace. I wanted a course that leveraged established, proven methods, but a course that recognized and fully addressed the contemporary professional environment."

The result of Whyte's instructional design is Time Superstar™, a very full half-day of training that focuses on results: Ways in which today's overwhelming workloads can be controlled and goals can be achieved. The star of the course is the Time Superstar™, a five-pointed icon that addresses five key points: Leveraging Processes, Organizing and Prioritizing, Converting Priorities Into Actions, Working Strategically, and Controlling Your Agenda.

"After years of research, years of teaching, and years of writing, I concluded that these were the things—the five points that had to be made—in time management training," Whyte said. "We're helping people become lifestyle superstars by understanding the Time Superstar™."

The Time Superstar™ course doesn't end with the five points: Whyte incorporated more than 100 individual time-saving best practices into the program. Even those who don't adopt a Time Superstar™ lifestyle will be able to reclaim 20 minutes a day through these tips, tricks and techniques. That buys them two weeks of productivity each year—enough to take a zero-stress vacation.

TSOD's new Stress Management Workshop—Success Under Stress™—required the instructional design team to start from scratch. "Our old Stress Management program was accurate and informative, but it really wasn't as interesting or engaging as other TSOD training programs," said TSOD's Marcia George. "We started fresh to ensure a vivid, interactive learning experience. Then, we went back and added content, then added more content, to ensure that the end result was both comprehensive and dynamic."

The result was worth the effort. Bolstered by its proven, previous versions, augmented by new research, and sculpted by the team of Whyte, George, Dianne Walbrecker, and Tim Sharp, Success Under Stress™ emerged as an uncommonly effective learning system.

"The visual slides alone are noteworthy," Whyte said. "We created individual background colors to match scenic photos for each slide. Participants visit waterfalls, rainforests, beaches, and mountain vistas as they progress through the course content. They not only learn about stress, they relax just by participating in the training program."

But Whyte points-out that a training program is more than a series of slides, a set of student activities, a workbook, or even a learning system. "Adult education involves a very comprehensive matrix of information and information transfer systems. Creating a new system is a massive endeavor, since you're dealing with reactions and retention. Details matter. Details are everything."

TSOD rolled-out the new Time Superstar and Success Under Stress programs in June of 2003. The launch customer, Verizon, which contracted for a series of programs, described the results as "great."

"We'll settle for 'great' for now," Whyte said. "We need to refine the courses—to go for something better than 'great.'" As he spoke, TSOD staffers were running away.