PLL, the Good, the Bad, the Ugly

Comment on Podcast

2007-01-11T22:35:00.000-08:00

The following comment was delivered to the telephone feedback line at 206-337-0637.

Below is my response

Thank you for your candid feedback on the testimonial hot line. It is not often that people communicate as clearly as you did when something falls short of their expectations. I really appreciate you taking the time to do this.

I'm sorry that the podcast didn't fit your needs. The intent was not for it to be a commercial so it is unfortunate that it came out that way. I will be sure to keep an eye on this for future episodes.

Thanks for your feedback; am I spamming you?

2006-10-19T12:28:00.000-07:00

Hi, all.

Thanks to all of you who have submitted questions, requests, and praise.

It's been fun for me and interesting to see issues raised that I never thought to question.

In an effort to make the blog more user-friendly, I've had the site tweaked quite a bit. The good news is that as a result of these changes, it should be easier to identify the posts containing participants' questions or comments and follow Rick's responses to them.

The bad news is that if you are a subscriber to this blog you might have received multiple e-mails containing older posts over the past few days. My apologies if that is the case. The updates should be dwindling down and you'll go back to receiving notices only when there are new posts.

Again, thanks for participating,
Cheri

Posted by Rick Itzkowich on 10/17/2006 at 06:22:22 PM

2006-10-18T05:38:00.000-07:00

This is in response to the post by Anonymous on 10/17/2006 at 10:36:00 AM

One of the reasons why I was thrilled when Cheri created this blog, was so that we could get the type of feedback you are giving us. As I mentioned in one of my posts on my Xtraordinary Living blog, the only way we can improve is by knowing where we are "falling short." So thank you for bringing this matter to our attention so that we can correct it. Here's a short answer to your CAPs question. PL&L's loyalty program is called CAPs. It is an acronym for Customer Appreciation Points. Besides earning 1 CAP for every dollar you spend with PL&L, there are many other ways to earn them. For example, your response to the podcast survey earned you 500 CAPs. CAPs are redeemable toward any new registration at a 3% rate (1,000 CAPs = $30). To find out how many CAPs you have earned or to answer any further questions on the program, we currently ask that people contact their personal program consultant. Thanks to your comment, we will be updating our website to include a section on CAPs. Lastly, in our latest podcast on "Motivation," Susie Walton talked about the importance of following an apology with a "make-up." I would like to offer you a "make-up" for your negative experience you had. I'm going to ask you to contact me since I don't know who you are. You can reach me by phone 858-456-7653 or email rick@productivelearning.com. I look forward to hearing from you.

Posted by Rick Itzkowich on 10/17/2006 at 12:06:24 PM

2006-10-17T13:32:00.000-07:00

This is in response to post by Anonymous on 10/09/2006 at 03:48:27 PM,

The Yearlong courses offer a great structure to help people develop and maintain their extraordinary thinking mindset on a regular basis. Unfortunately, your point is very accurate. We have looked for ways to minimize the impact on Northern California clients, but unfortunately we haven't been able to come up with anything that works for both Northern and Southern California participants. Rest assured that both Betty Jo Waxman and Jean O'Neill are constantly reminding us of this. Hopefully we'll be able to come up with something that addresses this challenge in the future. Regarding your second point, our policy is to do exactly what you are suggesting. One of the reasons we have the end-of-course evaluations is so that we can address situations like the one you mentioned. If you participated in a course and you don't feel like you got full value from it, please contact me directly at 858-456-7653 to make sure we make it right.

Posted by Rick Itzkowich on 10/17/2006 at 11:54:17 AM

2006-10-17T12:36:00.000-07:00

In response to post by Anonymous on 10/17/2006 at 08:46:20 AM

We understand that holding the Yearlong kick-off and final weekends in Southern California presents a challenge for the Northern California folks like you. Unfortunately we haven't been able to come up with another solution either. We'll keep looking and see if we can come up with something. Regarding your second point, our policy is to contact those who are dissatisfied with a course and see what we can do to make it right. Did this not happen in your case? If so, please contact me directly at 858-456-7653 so I can correct it immediately.

Confused and Frustrated

2006-10-17T11:37:00.000-07:00

Posted by Anonymous on 10/17/2006 at 10:36:00 AM

I was surprised to see my name in the latest PL&L e-zine. I got 500 CAPS! Wow! So, I started wondering what CAPS were, but there was no way to decode it from the e-zine. I clicked on the link that was in the section where my CAPS were announced, but the resulting web page had no mention of CAPS. I tried the search box on the home page of productivelearning.com. That brought me to a page about a contest that ended last year.The newsletter also had an article about posting feedback. Since I was feeling angry about spending my time on this CAPS thing, I thought I'd write something in the feedback blog. I tried to find the "bottom of the template panel", but I still do not know what a "template panel" is. So, I found a button called "Comments" and typed this in. I have no idea where this text will go, it anywhere. So, my question to me (since I may be the only person that ever has access to read this) is, "Why am I spending my time typing this?" A few answers come back to me. I like PL&L and if CAPS could help me get another class, I'm interterested. That interest is now replaced with frustration. I also wanted to try a blog, but that has felt confusing. I am also avoiding working on my business. I am going to reengage myself in business right now.

Good feeling about the integrity of PLL.

2006-10-17T10:20:00.000-07:00

Posted by Anonymous on 10/17/2006 at 10:10:20 AM

I was in a weekend course a couple of years ago when it became apparent to the trainer that something was going on between the trainer and the person sharing unrelated to the topic of the share. The trainer stopped the share and asked. It turned out that the sharer had had an unpleasant experience with that trainer in a previous class. The trainer immediately offerred the sharer a full refund of the cost of the current workshop and recommended that in future the sharer not take classes led by that trainer.

The sharer ended up (at least as far as I could tell by what was said during the workshop) declining the offer of any refund, and decided to continue participating in the workshop.

This kind of response to a dissatisfied customer gave me a very good feeling about the integrity of PLL.

No. Cal Year Long Participants burdened

2006-10-17T09:51:00.000-07:00

Posted by Anonymous on 10/17/2006 at 08:46:20 AM

The year-longs can be a great, particularly one like Crucial Conversations which takes much practice to change how we approach crucial conversations. However, having the first and last meeting in Southern California, puts a big financial burden on Northern CA participants. I don't have a good alternative other than to have one in Southern CA and the other in No Cal. I know that there are more participants in the year long in SO Cal, which is why it makes sense to hold both meetings down south. But if there is another way to share the finanical load, it would help. Also, I would like to see PL&L contact anyone who decides a course was not worth the money they paid and asked for some or all of it back. Useful feedback could be acquired, and the message that this feedback was valuable to PL&L would be important to the person making the request for a refund.

Posted by Rick Itzkowich on 10/10/2006 at 12:34:41 PM

2006-10-11T05:37:00.000-07:00

This is in response to post by Anonymous on 10/09/2006 at 03:48:27 PM

The structure of the Yearlong course is designed to give
participants a forum to address any issue that they are currently
facing in their lives. The first part of the monthly & quarterly
sessions is where we do this. In addition, sometimes people are so
"consumed" by their issue, that they are not able to look at
anything else until this is addressed.

As a trainer, I also look for an opportunity to see if I can make
the share relevant to the other participants who may not have the
same issue as the person who shares. Hope this answers your
question. Thanks for posting. Rick

Why so much time in year longs with opening follow ups?

2006-10-09T17:42:00.000-07:00

Posted by Anonymous on 10/09/2006 at 03:48:27 PM

Cheri thanks for setting this up. It will take a bit for all of us to understand that you are taking our comments and posting them up. I am in a yearlong course and sometimes wonder why the trainer takes so much time in the first part of the session to go over participants' updates. I am somewhat used to "classes" where I attend to get direct information. Maybe if Rick or Lindon check in they can explain the why's and wherefore's of the time spent on things that don't seem to be related to the topic at hand. Don't get me wrong, after the opening follow ups, we do get down to the topic at hand.

Mission Vision and Values helped me complete project

2006-10-03T06:46:00.000-07:00

Posted by Anonymous on 10/02/06 at 12:37:40 pm

I recently took on a large challenge for our company that required several new activities. I new up front that it would be difficult but if successful would help both myself and our company a great deal. I made arrangements and planned as best that I could for this project. The project was 1200 miles away and many difficult and unforseen problems were incurred during the course of this project. I have little doubt that it was the training received from PL&L on Mission Vision and Values that enabled me to persavere and complete this project correctly and on time. Thank you Pl&L

Purpose of this Blog

2006-09-15T07:09:00.000-07:00

Hi to one and all,

My name is Cheri Kaylor and I live in the Los Angeles, CA area.

I have been doing Personal Development courses since 1988. I started with the Summit Organization and stayed with them until they imploded. Then I took a few classes here and there from ex-employees of Summit, which had me stay in touch with Rick and Lindon. So when they formed their Productive Learning and Leisure company, I was one of their first clients.

This blog is being established to allow anyone who has had interactions with PLL to describe those interactions honestly and without fear of any kind of repercussions. The intent is to provide customer feedback to PLL in a private, non-threatening environment and to share your experiences of them with other clients or potential clients. Rick will be monitoring the postings, and may or may not respond.

If they are doing things right, then you probably want them to continue doing those things.

However, if you have had a bad experience with them, let us all know. I'm sure they would want to know as well, so they can fix things, if they are fixable. And the rest of us may need to know about your experience as well.

This is my first experience of creating a blog, so I may make some mistakes as well. If I do, please let me know so that I can fix things. I believe you can post to a blog anonymously, so unless you identify yourself as I have done, no one will know who you are. You can feel safe that whatever you post will be information shared with the readers of this blog, but you will not have to worry about being accosted in "real life" by someone who disagrees with you.

The rules are simple:
1. Post as often as you like.
2. Be honest in your post. If PLL has done good, let us know. If otherwise, let us know that, too.
3. Be polite, even if you are describing an unhappy experience.
4. No profanity.
5. Remember to maintain the confidentiality of the participants. If you have comments about what went on in a course (perhaps you felt a share went on too long), keep it anonymous. Don't use names or specifics about the discussion.

This will be a moderated blog. If I see any entries that violate the rules above, I will remove it. Also, since you can only respond by submitting a comment, in order to keep this looking like a blog with regular postings, I will resubmit comments as blog entries. Unless the comment violates the rules, I will not edit it, just submit it as is.

I am looking forward to hearing from others as to their experience of PLL. I will share mine as well.

Happy blogging,
Cheri