June (and the good weather) is finally here along with a variety of interesting and insightful free T&D webinars.  We hope they will inspire and motivate you.

Tuesday, June 5, 2012, 11AM – 12PM PST: 10 Best Practices for Engaging Online Learning

Join Sheri Jeavons, Founder of Power Presentations, Inc. and discover: 

• How to convert in-person training into live virtual sessions
• Delivery techniques to keep your learners engaged
• Why and when you should use a producer
• Best practices for training online with GoToTraining tools.

Wednesday, June 6, 2012, 10AM – 11AM PST: ASTD 2011 State of the Industry Report

Training is still “on trial”, charged with incurring expenses in excess of the value it provides to the organization. Training must reinvent itself and transcend the classroom. Attend this information-packed hour to learn how to structure initiatives so they enhance on-the-job performance and impact the bottom line. Join David Wentworth, Sr. Learning Analyst from Brandon Hall Group and James Kirkpatrick, President of Kirkpatrick Partners with a brief appearance by Donald Kirkpatrick himself, to learn directly from the source about the newest way to implement the four levels of learning evaluation. This program will focus on tactics at Levels 3 and 4 and provide ideas that any professional can implement in their own organization.

Brandon Hall group will also share award-winning case studies of organizations that have effectively utilized the Kirkpatrick evaluation methods to enhance learning efforts and identify positive performance improvement outcomes.  

Thursday, June 7, 2012, 10AM – 11AM PST: Talent Management for Everyone – Improve Enterprise Performance

Why do most organizations focus so much energy on high and low performers?  The majority of the workforce falls into that middle category that often gets ignored when it comes to focused performance improvement efforts. The truth is, there is a tremendous benefit to creating customized performance improvement environments that target all levels of your organization. These organizations remove the barriers, break down the walls, and create a culture of “everyone”. Join Stacey Harris VP or research for Brandon Hall Group and Jay Shaw, CEO, NetDimensions as they examine the link between developing the middle and improving enterprise performance as well as:

• Assessing the value of the middle
• Key practices in achieving performance Improvement
• Practical connection points between development and performance
• Integration pitfalls to avoid
• Examples and Case Studies

Tuesday, June 12, 2012, 10AM – 11AM PST: Isolating the Effects of Your Programs

Organizations invest in a variety of programs, projects, and initiatives to drive business performance through people. But when business measures improve, how do you know it was your particular program or project that caused the improvement? Join Dr. Patti Phillips’, President and CEO of the ROI Institute to learn:

• The importance of isolating the effects of your programs
• Three techniques you can use to isolate the effects of your program
• Considerations when determining the credibility of data

This is the third of a four part series. Part four is offered July 10, 2012.

Tuesday, June 12, 2012, 10AM – 11AM PST: Learning without Walls – Supporting the Extended Enterprise

Very few organizations operate in isolation. The vast majority need to engage and work closely with their entire value chain – their network of customers, suppliers, partners and distributors. Ideally they should also be sharing experiences, expertise and learning resources across their extended enterprise if they are to maximize value and “work smarter.”  Yet when many organizations select and implement learning technologies, their HR and Learning leaders look only within the organizational walls. Implementation only meets internal needs, and integration ignores external systems, processes and, more importantly, opportunities. Clearly the ‘walled’ approach is not adequate if learning is to become a shared asset and drive maximum value. New thinking is required, supported by flexible and effective learning infrastructures.

Join Brandon Hall Group Senior Analyst David Wentworth and Charles Jennings of Duntroon Associates as they examine the link between learning and performance and look at ways to customize learning approaches.

Wednesday, June 13, 2012, 10AM – 11AM PST: Lean Learning – Reduce Training Costs Without Sacrificing Quality

There are a lot of ways to add value to learning without increasing costs, but first we need to look at the true cost of training and comprehend the real value they deliver for organizational performance. This workshop looks at ways to reduce content documentation time and increase the value of training deliverables using the Learning Paths Methodology, which is rapidly becoming the global standard for lean training. You’ll explore how a Learning Path designed for an entire job can be integrated with courses and e-learning to reduce overall training costs and make the learning process as lean as possible. You’ll also learn the sizeable advantages of measuring organizational results instead of training results and contrast the benefits of proficiency-based training over competency-based training.

Thursday, June 14, 2012, 10AM – 11AM PST: Extending Reach and Generating Revenue – Panel Discussion around Delivering Learning to Partners, Resellers, Customers and Beyond

While most midsized companies recognize the importance of training their internal employees, some find it difficult to extend the same training to their ecosystem of customers, partners, suppliers, resellers and distributors.  As a result, organizations are increasingly exploring how to use their learning management system (LMS) to deliver training, certification, knowledge assets, and information to their external audiences of customers, partners, suppliers, resellers and distributors.  

Join David Wentworth, Senior Analyst, Brandon Hall Group, as he leads a panel discussion around different extended enterprise use cases.  Representatives from Eloqua, Aprimo Inc., and Pelco by Schneider Electric will share their experiences around:

• Developing and delivering knowledge and information to audiences outside the organization
• Driving revenue through customer, channel and distributor channels
• Improving productivity and information sharing with external partners
• Delivering certification programs and share knowledge
• Increasing customer satisfaction and product adoption
• Providing consistent access to training, information and knowledge assets, 24/7/365

Monday, June 18, 2012, 11AM- 12PM PST: Lost Secrets of Effective Leadership Training

With the billions spent on leadership development, why are leaders still lacking the skills they need to actually lead? One reason is that organizations have gone too far in addressing competencies and have forgotten that leaders need a foundation of basic skills to build competencies. In this webcast, the presenters will apply their decades of experience in leadership development to examine how to refocus on Interaction Essentials—the “secret sauce”—that is the key to better leaders. In fact, because Interaction Essentials are part of all leader competencies, initial training on the Essentials means that training initiatives focusing on competencies will have a greater payoff.

Tuesday, June 19, 2012, 10AM – 11AM PST: How to Chunk and Boil Down Long, Very Long PowerPoint eLearning Programs

Ask SMEs, your boss or clients about what could be the most important part of the content. And the answer? Usually “EVERYTHING.” We all want to believe this. Yet in real-life, there is hardly enough time to cover all of the content. Consequently, we extend training time beyond what is necessary. Learn:

• How to help SMEs break content down into “must learn now” and “learn later”
• About the benefits of chunked and boiled-down content in rapid development, deployment of programs, frequency and positive overall results, sales and support, coaching and on-the-job learning
• How to cut down PowerPoint from 100 pages to 10 pages
• How to cut costs of development down to 30%
• How to increase speed of development to 300%
• The five-step process of chunking and boiling down long content into small, reusable, learning objects

Wednesday, June 20, 2012, 11AM – 12PM PST: Add Powerful Storytelling Techniques to Your Training

Expert facilitator and "story catcher" David Lee (www.HumanNatureAtWork.com), author of the May 2012 Infoline "Powerful Storytelling Techniques" shows attendees how to:

• Introduce new-hires to organizational culture
• Alter perspectives without alienating the audience
• Gain learners’ trust in you and your message
• Deliver difficult feedback or sensitive messages
• Inspire learner confidence around challenging subject matter

Wednesday, June 20, 2012, 10AM – 11AM PST: Identifying and Jumpstarting New Leaders – the Coldwell Banker Blueprint for Success

Coldwell Banker recognizes the importance of succession planning and developing new leaders.  To accomplish this, they have developed an intensive one day skill and behavior assessment program to identify and qualify new Sales Managers.  To expedite manger readiness, Coldwell Banker is also developing a precision based personalized training program based on an extensive competency model.  Join Dave Rood, Senior Director, Professional Development at Coldwell Banker University to learn about the unique features of these programs, including the use of online competency maps, automated training plans and social learning. 

Thursday, June 21, 2012, 12:30 – 1:30PM PST: Results First: Integrating Formal and Informal Learning to Accredit Proven Skills

There's formal learning and there's informal learning, and never the two shall meet. Unless, that is, you really care about results and transfer back to the job. This case-study will show how formal learning, on-the-job transfer, and cutting-edge social technologies are being integrated into an employee accreditation program and a sales readiness initiative. An integrated approach to blending the formal with the informal also provided an opportunity to use workforce analytics to measure impact.

Aids and tools will include: 

• How to focus on results to get the investment you need
• A matrix for developing an integrated solution
• How to respond when your customer asks for something you disagree with
• How to use your LMS to track employee accreditation and results

Thursday, June 28, 2012, 10AM – 11AM PST: “Zombies in my workspace” – Building Scenarios using Articulate Storyline

Using the book, “Scenario-based Learning” as a point of reference, Ray Jimenez, Chief Learning Architect of Vignettes for Training, will walk you through how to combine engaging and instructionally sound scenarios with the features of Articulate StoryLine. The source code to a basic scenario “Zombies in my workspace”, authored in StoryLine will be provided to you in advance. This will allow you time to investigate the authoring design prior to learning more about the approach during the actual webinar.

Ray will explain how to:

• Build basic scenarios and decision tree with scenes and slides, timelines, layers and triggers
• Use variables for reported visited scenes and decisions
• Provide game-like feedback for progress tracking
• Download and obtain the free source code for the Articulate StoryLine scenario “Zombies in my workspace”(Ray Jimenez, 2012) – ideal reference for your development.