Training Industry Blog

Greetings from a dying technology. OK I better explain that one. But first, let’s talk about the eight-track tape. People like me – a man of a certain age is a polite way to put it – will no doubt remember that before there was the MP3 there was the compact disc. Before that was the cassette tape. Albums were in there somewhere as well.

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At this time of year, we’re all experiencing some form of Super Bowl fever. But there’s a lot more than good football and clever commercials in store … there’s a lesson for training professionals.

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There’s a rather pessimistic old saying that I’m sure you’ve heard: “Whatever can go wrong will go wrong.” Hopefully things aren’t quite that bad in your environment, but it’s easy to understand the sentiment. To put it more poetically, “the best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry.”

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I’ve been reading reports again, and I’m ready to make a prediction. You’re sitting there right now thinking about change. How to manage it, how to cope with it, how to create it.

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The oft-quoted Yogi Berra once quipped, “If you don’t know where you are going, you could wind up someplace else.” Vision is about knowing where you are going and how you will get there. In organizational change, vision is about articulating the purpose of the project so that others know why they are following and can take the initiative and improve the path. A clear, well-developed vision serves a change leader in two important ways. It gives direction and focus to employees (so they are inclined to move from the status quo), and it defines the scope of the initiative (so you don’t wind up somewhere else).

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Let’s be clear: The training industry is full of hard-working people whose basic job is to make other hard-working people excel, succeed and contribute. It may be a stretch to call it a calling, but we’re still in an industry with its collective eye on a very appealing prize: Success and advancement.

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Most training is accomplished on the job; in department stores, banks, and other non-retail establishments. Jane, a more senior employee, shows John how to perform a task, shares a few words of wisdom, and later watches John do it himself. It makes perfect sense, but there are several pitfalls with OJT.

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Innovation may seem like a new buzzword, but it’s a concept as old as the discovery of fire … it’s a process to more efficiently and effectively reach a desired outcome. In upcoming webinars, in books, in articles and at water coolers all around the world, business and training leaders are taking innovative approaches to managing innovation. So here’s a hard question, at least for many people: When’s the last time you were innovative?

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A covenant can generally be defined as an agreement that yields a relationship of commitment between two parties. Such a commitment once existed between physicians and society. Physicians, by sacrificing their 20’s (and in some cases, a good portion of their 30’s) and dedicating themselves to become proficient in the healing arts, would be granted by society a better than average living, an independent career and a place of respect in their community. This agreement, steadfast for years, has recently been abrogated by society; in the 1990’s with the advent of managed care and most recently, with the Affordable Care Act. So while physicians must still sacrifice their youth to learn the healing arts, society has capped their salaries, diminished their status in society and curtailed their independence.

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One of the most frequently asked questions of training analysts is ‘how big is the training market?’ The truth of the matter is no one really knows for sure, although we are able to make good rational estimates based on sound research and economic analysis. Why is the data hard to get to? Because corporations (buyers of services) are weary of reporting actual expenditures for training. And in some cases, many large companies don’t accurately know how much they spend on training as expenses get buried in non-training related line items.

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