Training Industry Blog

It's not our job to ensure that employees are provided with challenging work, in a pleasant setting, and are paid a fair wage. Our job is to provide them with the skills they need to do their jobs and let management worry about the rest.

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One of the opportunities – or challenges– of training is the need to remain on the cutting edge. Technology enables that visionary approach, but training professionals must still be the guinea pigs for all types of new systems and approaches. Learning how to communicate quickly and efficiently is one of the highest hurdles to clear.

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While chatting with a retired fire chief, the conversation rolled around to change management. Given my lack of experience with fire departments, the chief piqued my interest by saying that implementing a change in a fire department is completely different from business. He explained that the obstacle in putting a fire department-wide change into operation lies with the officers. (In the fire department hierarchy, firefighters report to officers, who report to the chief.) According to the fire chief, the firefighters, because of their position, don’t see the need for any new direction. In contrast, the chief and his or her staff see the need on a longer-term strategic level. Firefighters see that what they are doing right now is working for the current situation and see no need for change. The chief and his staff depend on officers to enforce the change in direction, but officers are loath to do so because they have personal and working relationships with the firefighters that could be jeopardized.

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Outside resources can increase the scope and flexibility of internal training departments. They can provide knowledge of a particular subject matter (e.g.,Leadership and Management Development) or additional horsepower during a "crunch" period. However, using outside content development resources is not without its share of problems. Here are the five most common ways training departments fail in working with outside content development resources. I sincerely hope that none of you make these mistakes, but if you do, be assured that you stand in good company.

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In 1918, in a small town in Indiana, a Father gave his son a sheet of paper. On it was written 7 principles which he hoped his son would learn to live by. Little did the Father know that his son would not only live by those principles, but he would carry that sheet of paper in his wallet for the rest of his life.

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Blogger Chris Brogan writes about seeing the author of Crush It, Gary Vaynerchuk, speak at a conference in Norway. Someone grilled Gary on what was the return on investment of social media. When he finally had enough, Gary responded, “What’s the ROI of your mother?”

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I wish you could have felt the emotions I did my last day of work. Excitement, fear, anticipation, hope. Mostly a sense of freedom. I felt alive! I was leaving a company after 22 ½ years to pursue other interests. The job was fine and the company a place I still remember fondly but I was ready for a new adventure. I had no idea what would happen.

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The objective of training is not to tell anyone anything. It is for them to do something. Those of us who have children know too well that telling people to do something doesn’t guarantee that they will do it.

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Training BPO has changed considerably since the late '90's when many believe it actually took root as a viable business strategy for learning leaders. Today's training outsourcing market has changed considerably. Here are some of the biggest changes I've seen in the last few years.

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I was recently asked to speak to a professional coaching organization about the topic, “How to coach like a Master Certified Coach.”  I have always felt that mastery is still more art than science, especially in this evolutionary process we call coaching, and was a bit challenged by how to best illustrate something I feel is intuitive.

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