Training Industry Blog

Do you wish you had a visual to help you and your clients through your initial test design conversations? For many of us buyers and suppliers of training & certification the conversation initially revolves around low stakes versus high stakes testing. You may branch off into the levels of testing and discuss your strategy for beginner, intermediate and advanced levels which will surely lead to how the test will be implemented. We can rely on familiar testing options which we’ve seen others implement or have implemented in the past but we may arrive at a different outcome if we look at the range of solutions available as we have this conversation.

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It’s amazing to me how many non-profit organizations there are in Washington, D.C. and elsewhere that are specifically related to workforce development and corporate training . You can see a partial list here: http://www.edpath.com/workforcedevelopmentorgs.html

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Surely you remember your college days: The networking (parties), building relationships (parties), informal learning (reading at parties) and continuous development (parties). It’s a good time, an important time in the development of adults … it’s what Stephen King called “the massive last gasp of childhood.”

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The rush for immediate results from an organizational change often ends with unintended consequences. Consider an example from a large, US-based service company. Senior managers recognized that their processes, especially for ordering materials, had become misaligned with their reporting structure. They were planning a large-scale reorganization to clarify the reporting structures, simplify the ordering processes, and realign the two. Like in many companies, senior management kicked off the change with a big, all-hands announcement that outlined the benefits expected from streamlining the processes and coordinating them with the reporting structure. The announcement did not fall on deaf ears, so much as ears distracted by other concerns.

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In some companies, Training and content development is accomplished by a centralized function that reports into corporate. In others, these tasks are performed by smaller groups reporting into the individual business units.

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No one I know has enough time. However, it is possible to find extra time if you are conscious about your judgment of time.

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Ethics, of course, is a major concern in business, at all levels of the organization. If you don’t believe me, just ask Scott Thompson, who’s now out as CEO of Yahoo! after the world found out his computer science degree was no more real than unicorns and leprechauns.

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I was in the business of Broadcasting for 20 years before I become a coach. As a result, I also spent a lot of time at live concerts entertaining customers where I had a very different experience and interpretation of “feedback.” For three decades the word “feedback” described the screeching sound that occurs when electronic instruments are too close to the humongous concert sized speakers. Depending on the venue, the sound can cause even the bravest rock and rollers to put their hands over the ears.

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Recently, I presented a Team Building and Physician Leadership Program to a group of young physician leaders at a mid Atlantic State Medical Association Annual Meeting. The participants are what we, in the executive business coaching world, term "high potentials." These are individuals who not only strive to perform at a constantly higher level, but also consistently reevaluate their performance to help them do so. The program consisted of three segments: team building, individual personality assessments and a review of how physician leaders and functioning healthcare teams can thrive in healthcare reform.

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When should the road lead to certification for associations or companies? I’m thrilled that Doug Harward asked me to kick-off this certification blog for training buyers and suppliers. The certification marketplace is generally divided into; providers of certifications (co.’s, orgs, & associations) , vendors that support certification development, governors of certifications, and consumers of certifications. This blog focuses on all of them with the exception of direct consumers of certifications.

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