Training Industry Blog

Instructional designers are accustomed to working with subject matter experts and business unit management. What about working with other groups within talent management that are also focused upon the enhancing the performance of people and organizations?

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A new term was recently added to my lexicon: “real-time labor market data.” It came from research I am conducting about how community colleges work at building courses and programs that align with employers’ demands and the needs of regional economies.

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If you are interested in how progressive workforce and economic development initiatives can have a real and positive influence on solid employee skill building and the facilitation of meaningful K through 20 education environments throughout a geographic region, then look no further than Columbus, Indiana. This relatively little-known city with a population of about 77,000 has come to the forefront of my research as an interesting and innovative place where the creation of unique collaborations between universities; community colleges; elementary and secondary schools; employers; local, state and county workforce and economic development agencies; and philanthropic foundations have brought about dynamic and positive workforce and economic development growth to a population from ten counties in Southeastern Indiana.

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Some interesting email spam recently landed in my inbox...well, interesting for someone involved in change management. The email had dramatic pictures of bald eagles, and its message was about what eagles can teach us about change. It claimed that a bald eagle can live to be 70 years old—a bit over twice its average life span—by going through a “rebirth.” This rebirth involves dire, difficult, and distressing physical actions—any single one of which would likely kill the bird. The conclusion of the spam was that the eagle has a lesson for all of us: to move forward, and make a significant change, we must take painful steps to rid ourselves of the past.

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Some of you may have heard all of the talk about Tin Can this year, others may not. People are really excited (at least this person is)!

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In August 2012, my team at DTCC Learning (DTCCL) reconfigured our organizational structure and adopted Agile as our approach to developing learning solutions. We did this in order to address client expectations for instant access to information, frequent updates and flawless performance of the learning solutions that they interact with.

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Endings and beginnings are more important than middles. This is particularly true in virtual instruction where you are not physically present to excite your audience. Beginning on a high note and ending with a “bang” will not happen by accident! You need to plan for it. After years of successfully developing and presenting virtual instruction, I have found that the foundations of a firecracker virtual training class are lighting rod introduction and summary scripts.

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Imagine that you wanted to lose weight so you decided to start an exercise program. One way to begin could be to research and study all of the best exercise practices and then interview exercise experts after which time you could visit all of the gyms in your area, write down the positives and negatives of each, and then schedule time to negotiate the membership fee, choose the appropriate trainer and finally schedule your first workout. The effort described might take months. In the meantime, you would not have lost a single pound. Another approach to losing weight might be to simply (after getting the OK from your doctor of course) begin some (any) type of exercise program, monitor the results after about two weeks and then make the appropriate adjustments.

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The key to great tests is neither the most advanced implementation methodology nor the latest in cyber security but it’s something much more basic.

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There are a lot of reasons to love, and hate, learning technology. I walk the line between those extremes everyday. I work for a software company that solves SCORM compliance problems, where I spend all of my time helping people understand and use the Tin Can API.

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