2019 ATD State of the Industry Report (podcast)

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Each year, the Association for Talent Development publishes its annual State of the Industry Report. The data is gathered from organizations across the country and around the world who report on things such as average amount of money per employee spent on professional development and the average number of hours that employees spend in formal training. It can offer some useful data points against which you can benchmark your own organization’s professional development strategy.

In this podcast, we talk to Sarah Schillen, Director of Research at ATD Puget Sound, and look at the ATD 2019 State of the Industry report. We take some time to discuss the data, how it was captured, and surprises we encountered while sifting through the findings. We also take some time to discuss how smaller organizations can capture and learn from similar data.

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Training-themed Valentines for Your Favorite L&D Colleagues (2020 Edition)

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“Ugh, I hate Valentine’s Day! I never know what to get.” If you’ve ever uttered these words, well we have a deal for you! FREE Valentine’s for that special trainer in your life!

This year we have two new Valentines for you to share. You can download a pdf to print your own valentines. It may sound silly, but printing these out and dropping them into some colleagues’ mailboxes tomorrow may help keep you and your training team front of mind around your organization.

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Engaging eLearning Design Tips with Tim Slade (podcast)

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This week on the Train Like You Listen podcast, Brian sits down with Tim Slade of  timslade.com to discuss eLearning. During this conversation, Brian and Tim discuss how to create engaging eLearning, share tips on how to manage expectations with clients who want amazing eLearning developed quickly and cheaply, and discuss where to find new inspiration for creative eLearning approaches.

If a 10-minute conversation with Tim isn’t enough for you, you can also check out his book: The eLearning Designer’s Handbook: A Practical Guide to the eLearning Development Process for New eLearning Designers.

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A Training Activity that Leads to Discussion Every Time

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“G****mmit, I knew he was going to make this hard!” exclaimed one of the participants as we got underway.

Earlier this week I was asked to drop by a client’s meeting with a group of their trainers. I’ve worked with these trainers for several years and they have adopted the dialogue-based approach to training in which my company specializes. I wasn’t asked to help them work on their facilitation or delivery, I was asked to come in to help ensure everyone understands the “why” behind this dialogue-based approach. So I reached deep down into my bag of tricks to find a way to unearth any resistance or misunderstanding that may still exist among these trainers.

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Applying Lean Principles to Onboarding (podcast)

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This week on the Train Like You Listen podcast, Brian and Heather sit down with Todd Hudson of The Maverick Institute to discuss lean principles and how they apply to the design of corporate onboarding programs. We discuss the value of lean principles to the onboarding process, recommendations on how to get started, and even discuss an example of a successful application of these principles.

Listen using the player below. Please leave us your thoughts in the comment section or on twitter @train_champion.

Want to read a bit about how one organization gamified their entire onboarding process? Click here for the case study.

Want to read about how an organization measured the impact of their onboarding program? Click here for a summary of the overhaul and how it was measured.

Flipping your training toolbox upside down

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JD Dillon is an interesting creature. The best that I can tell, the guy eats, sleeps and breathes talent development. I’ve followed him on Twitter, I’ve seen and interacted with him at conferences. And he’s a total learning geek. So it’s fitting that his company is called LearnGeek.

Earlier this week we shared our latest Train Like You Listen podcast, featuring JD, and we had a chance to talk about organizational learning strategy and a modern learning ecosystem. I want to return to this idea in today’s post because there’s something fascinating about the modern learning ecosystem model that JD offers. It literally turns the tools we typically use in training and development on their heads.

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Are people the biggest barrier to an effective organizational learning strategy? (10-min Podcast)

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This week on the Train Like You Listen podcast, Brian and Heather sit down with JD Dillon of LearnGeek to discuss big picture learning strategy for organizations. Whether you work in a small training team, are embedded within a huge organization or are an outside consultant working on learning strategy, JD offers some nuggets for you.

In this episode, JD shares what a modern learning ecosystem is, how organizational issues are best supported, and how learning fits in with professionals during the flow of their workday.

Listen using the player below. Please leave us your thoughts in the comment section or on twitter @train_champion.

Case Study: How a Financial Services Company Refreshed a Tired Training Program

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On Monday, Betty Dannewitz of If You Ask Betty, shared some insights to help you get started using augmented reality or virtual reality technology in your training programs (if you missed her 9-minute podcast, click here). Today, she’s back on Train Like A Champion as a guest author, sharing how her financial services company was able to breathe new life into their tired old training programs using a new, rapid authoring tool for face-to-face instruction called Soapbox. Here is Betty in her own words:

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