Who Are All These People?

Growing up, it seemed that all the working adults had titles that were short and easy to understand:  doctor, nurse, teacher.  These days, titles have gotten longer and more ambiguous:  policy analyst, medical technician, or senior consultant.  It seems like everyone needs at least a paragraph to explain what they do, and even then, it …Read More

What’s New with What’s New?

The holiday season is nearly upon us, which means that party season is also about to kick into full gear.  Between workplace and club end-of-year parties and friends’ holiday happy hours, it’s the perfect time to establish new connections and strengthen existing ones. In other words, it’s time to brush up your networking skills.

One of …Read More

Not Your Father’s Compliance Training

Every year, employees in countless organizations engage in the “check the box ritual:”  They attend mandatory training to comply with safety, financial, or legal requirements.  In the past two decades, many organizations have resorted to web-based training to ease the burden:  organizations do not have to spend as much on training delivery, and employees can …Read More

What Do Skirts and Training Have in Common?

Women’s fashion in the 1800s was characterized by maxi-dresses which came all the way to the ankles.  By the 1940’s, skirt lengths crept to mid-calf with the introduction of the midi-skirt. The 1960s continued the upward climb with mini-skirts that sat mid-thigh.  These days, any length is acceptable, including the hybrid hi-lo:  short in the …Read More

Making the Connection

When it comes to preparing us for adult life, schools do a pretty good job.  We learn basic skills like reading, writing, and mathematics and advanced skills like critical thinking, creative thinking, and public speaking.  But we never learn to network. Networking, according to Lynne Waymon in Make Your Contacts Count, is “the deliberate process …Read More

With Distance Comes Clarity

A few months ago, a client’s training department underwent an audit. The external auditor, an intelligent, analytical, and somewhat cynical man, asked, “Why bother using instructional designers to create the training? They aren’t subject matter experts, so what do they add? Couldn’t we just cut them and save time and money by having the experts …Read More

Is Your Custom Training Hitting the Mark?

If you want to enhance your employees’ time management skills, the process is simple: send them to the training provider that offers the best value for a generic course. Hundreds of providers do a good job at conveying well-tested information. But what if you want to teach your employees about a new policy, process, or …Read More

The Annual Gift-Giving Guide

An interesting contradiction exists in the business world today: Stories abound about how businesses are allowing less and less travel. Between the high cost of gas, the increase in terrorism, the prevalence of the internet, and the plethora of VOIP conference call systems, the amount of business travel has decreased. Yet, airplanes have higher passenger …Read More

Where Did We Go Wrong?

The good news for training professionals is that more and more companies are seeing the value of investing in training. According to a 2015 Deloitte University study of over 3,000 business leaders globally, 85% felt that “learning” is “important” or “very important” to their business’ success.

The bad news is that those who are responsible for …Read More