The occasional insight into learning and development and whatever sparks our fancy.
For the past 8 years, Donald Taylor has been taking the pulse of innovators and technology’s early adopters across the field of learning and development through an annual Global Sentiment Survey (download the 2021 edition here).
By asking the simple question: What will be hot in learning and development in the coming year, this survey sheds some light on some very interesting trends that any L&D practitioner should be keeping an eye on.
Continue readingOne of my first blog posts on Train Like A Champion began with the following:
“The conversations around the need for training can sometimes seem like they’re take out of a book a Mad Libs.” As part of that post, I shared the following Mad Lib-style activity, along with 7 questions you might want to ask to determine if training is the right solution:
The fact is that training can be one way to help people learn, but there are a lot of other ways that organizations can help their employees learn key knowledge and skills without the need for time-consuming formal training programs.
Continue readingIn December, the Endurance Learning team shared one word around which they will focus in 2021 – a one-word resolution.
Resolutions, like any professional development goals, aren’t just something to set and forget. They take intention, action, reflection and effort in order to ensure they’re more than just a feel-good way to wrap up the year.
I was reading an article recently that cited data suggesting almost half those who set a New Year’s Resolution had abandoned it after a month. Well, we’re one month into the year. How’s your own New Year’s Resolution doing? Rocking along? Or time to re-commit?
Let’s take a look at how our Endurance Learning team has fared a month into the year.
Continue readingAnyone who has been tasked with building a training program has struggled with the question of “how long will this take?” I’m delighted to share my conversation with Robyn Defelice who has been studying this question. My conversation with Robyn digs into the value of these numbers and what they say (or don’t say) about the quality of training.
Continue readingLike any other department in a company, Learning and Development teams have the biggest impact when their efforts are tightly aligned with the strategic goals of the organization. Gus Curran and Rachel Gathagu from Humentum and co-authors of a new ebook on organizational learning strategies (which is free and can be downloaded here) joined Brian to discuss their observations about how L&D teams can best contribute to the overall health and success of organizations. [Editor’s Note: Check out Successfully Working in a Remote Office with Gus Curran]
Continue readingIf you follow TED talks on instructional design, you likely have watched or heard Melissa Marshall’s TED talk “Talk Nerdy to Me.” During her compelling talk (with over 2.6 million views!), she discusses making technical presentations accessible to anyone in the audience without compromising the integrity or talking down to the more technical audience members.
Melissa took some time this week, with the Train Like You Listen podcast, to elaborate on her technical presentation approach. During this short conversation, she dives a bit deeper into some thoughts she has about good instruction when working with technical content. If podcasts aren’t your jam or you prefer to read instead of listen, you can read the transcript of this entire conversation below the podcast link.
Continue readingHow do you measure the success of your training programs? Yeah, that is a pretty complicated question for many learning professionals. However, we all know that it is critical to our programs that we show how and why they are working. The big gaps seem to be the mystery around how exactly we get that information.
On the first Train Like You Listen podcast of 2021, Brian talks to David Vance and Peggy Parskey from the Center for Talent Reporting and authors of Measurement Demystified, Creating Your L&D Measurement, Analytics and Reporting Strategy to find out more about how to measure training programs.
Continue reading“Start a blog” was my New Year’s Resolution for 2012. Almost 7 years and 835 posts later, I’m still here. (Full disclosure: my colleague, Heather Snyder, has written a good portion of those 835 posts since she joined Endurance Learning in mid-2017.)
And for the past eight years, I’ve shared a one-word resolution that I’ve chosen to guide me personally and professionally in the new year.
In 2013 it was momentum as I pondered the most critical element to successful learning programs.
In 2014 it was possibility as I pondered the idea of launching my own company.
In 2015 it was execution.
In 2016 it was risk.
In 2017 it was ruthless as I knew there were some tough decisions I needed to make.
In 2018, I chose joy, because what good is success if I couldn’t have more joy in my life?
For 2019, my head was wrapped around the word new. And we indeed began working with new customers this year, tried some new activities, wrote some new articles for major publications, spoke at some new conferences and launched a new product!
In 2020, the word that I focused on was partnership. While it was tricky to stick to this word as social distancing and virtual work became the norm, I’ve been able to strengthen my bond with my business partner, established working relationships with a half dozen new clients (any of whom have become repeat customers), developed new relationships as I led our local ATD chapter, worked closely with ATD as I put the finishing touches on a book that will be released next summer and established a new partnership in my personal life. Not bad considering the natural restrictions that befell us with the global Coronavirus pandemic. In fact, it was an extremely important word and resolution to hold on to throughout the past year.
Continue readingWith the holiday season upon us, just the simple fact that we’ve made it through 2020 with our health and important relationships in tact should be gift enough. Of course, if you’re still looking for a physical present to give to that special trainer in your life, my colleague Rachel Niles spent some time this week compiling a list of recommendations from almost three dozen thought leaders in the L&D space.
Continue readingIn the 2020 Covid-era VILT platform showdown, organizations are choosing different platforms for their training departments for various reasons (cost, security, and available features, to name a few). Often times, Webex wins out as the platform of choice.
We’ve heard from trainers that learning the Webex platform can be overwhelming. And it is no surprise; Webex is a beast of a tool. Logging into Webex can feel like visiting a great ice cream parlor; there are so many choices that you just don’t know where to begin! Thank your lucky stars; the Trainer’s Guide to Webex has arrived!
Continue reading