Training Industry Blog

Most of us have heard the saying that “in crisis there is also opportunity.” However, few leaders and organizations take clear, consistent action enabling them to capitalize on specifically what this opportunity is for their situation. So let’s unravel this mystery so you and your organization can take advantage of your opportunity. The easier opportunity to see, of course, is for those organizations who continue ...

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J. Nicholas Hoover of Techweb.com reported in the October 26, 2009 issue of InformationWeek that the state of Indiana has canceled a $1.3B, 10 year outsourcing deal with IBM claiming the vendor "failed to deliver the service improvement expected from a welfare modernization project." How many times have we heard that message from a buyer of training services?

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Tradition holds that when new construction takes place the first stone laid is the ceremonial “cornerstone”. It acts as much as a symbolic attribute of the structure as it does in actually supporting it. This cornerstone serves as a guide for how laborers should continue construction. We see cornerstone guiding lots of industries. For example, the 4 cornerstones or marketing are “Price, Product, Place and Position” or the two cornerstone of Java programming are “coupling and cohesion”. There is even a “Cornerstone of Internet Freedom” which outlines the legal structure of user-generated internet content.

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Several consumer-based web technologies have recently made a big splash in the learning and development field. These technologies were originally designed for social networking and interaction but have now grown into tools used to create small learning events and to provide information on an as needed basis. Let’s take a look at a couple of the tools and see how they are being used.

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As a company, Public Storage knows all about keeping things safe and available on-demand. When it comes to corporate learning, those same principles apply: Associates need immediate, just-in-time access to information and education. As vice president for learning and development, Oscar Herrin is the custodian of opportunity for Public Storage, housing the information and creating a customer-focused environment.

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Why is it many professions require a certification exam prior to being licensed to perform their trade? Maybe because the liability associated with poor performance is too costly and someone must be held accountable. No doubt our government officials want to make sure we are protected from unskilled people performing services that could have physically harmful affects if they are not done correctly? Of course certifications don’t prevent people from being unscrupulous or dishonest, but it does ensure they know what they are doing.

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The demand for skilled engineers causes enterprises to invest in IT Training. While we hear a lot about the size of the overall IT marketplace, most of the attention is paid towards the cost of hardware and software requirements and not training. We know that IT training represents a portion of the overall market, but how much?

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Consider this fact: the current worldwide economic crisis is not a natural phenomenon. Instead, it is one that is man-made. And, as such, it only became a reality because self-serving individuals were not identified and prevented from their now infamous destructive actions as managers and leaders. Here they absolutely failed to effectively execute their accountabilities. Why did this occur? More importantly, what can be done now AND in the future to minimize risk for re-occurrence? Warren Buffet recently pointed out, people tend not to apply the lessons of history but repeat their errors time and again. One of the two root causes of ineffective leadership is simply that too many individuals in such positions do not possess or demonstrate the required capabilities for managing people, processes, problems, decisions, tasks and communications. Our work at Life Associates has typically identified that no more than 20% of manager-leaders (MLs) are considered to be effective by the employees reporting to them.

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Whenever learning leaders gather, you can count on an exchange of information and ideas. At the recent CLO and Talent Management Forum, hundreds of people executives from some of the world’s leading organizations gathered to share their experiences and expertise. Whether your focus is on technology or talent, design or delivery, there’s a lesson to be learned from the annals of this event.

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