Winter’s been threatening to arrive early—and with it the perennial end-of-year crunch. The rush to the end-of-year finish line can be overwhelming for busy people, so don’t forget to do a little temperature check… Is there something you really wanted to get done this year? Something new you wanted to learn? There’s still time! Check out one of the free webinars being offered this month—it may just give you the boost you need to finish out the year on a high note. We hope December’s webinar offerings will inspire and motivate you.

Tuesday, December 1, 2015, 8AM – 9AM PST: Building a Talent Development Structure Without Borders (Free for ATD members)

In today’s knowledge economy, organizations need to build talent development functions that support the unique competency needs of their businesses. Recognizing the challenge this poses, the Association for Talent Development (ATD) and Rothwell & Associates (R&A) partnered to understand how organizations are structuring and aligning the talent development function. The purpose of this research is to describe the components of talent development that organizations can use to build their own individualized talent development structures.

During this webcast, participants will learn about the research ATD and R&A gathered, and:

• Central components of talent development.

• Global challenges in talent development.

• Insights from industry leaders.

• Building successful talent development in global organizations.

Participants of this webcast will receive ATD's forthcoming research white paper: Building a Talent Development Structure Without Borders.

Tuesday, December 1, 2015, 10AM – 11AM PST: Creating a Learning Culture (Free for members of The Institute)

Are you struggling to get your leaders to commit to developing talent? Is your learning organization talk, with no action? If so, this webinar is for you.

This highly practical, interactive 60-minute webinar will equip Learning & Development leaders with real-world, actionable insights to make learning a cultural reality in your organization!

Lisa Young, SVP Blended Learning Solutions at HORN and Mary Kovacs, VP Human Resources at Service Inspired Restaurants, will share the specific steps they successfully actioned to build a unified, self-perpetuating learning culture within Service Inspired Restaurants, owner of popular restaurant brands, like Jack Astor’s, Canyon Creek, Alice Fazooli’s, Scaddabush, Reds, Dukes and Far Niente.

Along with the webinar leaders, you'll explore how to:

• Objectively Identify your Organizational Gaps / Opportunities—balancing rigour with efficiency.

• Build an Actionable Strategy—that plans for short-term wins and long-term gains.

• Engage your First Followers—who will play an instrumental role in championing learning among the naysayers.

• Embed It in Everything you Do—so it becomes engrained as a natural way of working.

Tuesday, December 1, 2015, 10AM – 11AM PST: Measuring the ROI of Informal Learning

It has become apparent that people learn more of what they need to be effective at their job through informal channels, on-the-job experiences, and coaching than they do through more formal means. However, most companies still focus their learning efforts on the classroom and the course. What opportunities are they missing to help people retain more of what they are learning and discover new knowledge through these other challenges?

Join David Wentworth, Principal Analyst with Brandon Hall Group, and Alessio Artuffo, Chief Operating Officer at Docebo NA Inc., as they examine the possibilities within social and informal learning, as well as ideas around measuring the benefits of their use.

Discussion topics include:

• The 70:20:10 Learning Framework.

• The use of informal learning to boost learning.

• Measurement strategies.

• Examples of companies putting these strategies into practice.

Wednesday, December 2, 2015, 10AM – 11AM PST: 10 Things to Do Immediately to Modernize Your Learning Culture

We've been hearing a lot about the modern classroom environment lately. And there is no doubt that modern learners have more options about where and how they learn. We also know that today's workplace demands training be embedded in the workflow, with minimal disruption to the daily routine.

It's ironic that while access to content is becoming more individualized, teams are becoming more collaborative in nature. How do we support this as our workforce becomes more global, virtual, and mobile?

It's time to re-examine our learning cultures to ensure that they support this evolving environment. Join Jennifer Hofmann to discuss 10 requirements for today's modern learning culture, with tips on how to implement them in your organization.

The discussion will be about more than technology: the webinar facilitators will address job-relevancy, manager support, and adapting proven design concepts (like adult learning principles and instructional design) to today's requirements.

Wednesday, December 2, 2015, 12PM – 1PM PST: Doing the Impossible Through Training: Creating Culture Change

An organization’s culture is a set of precedents, approaches that have worked in the past that get applied to the present. Culture is dynamic, and it influences everything else about the workplace: perceptions, decisions, output, and stress levels. Though it often feels like an immutable force, in reality it is nothing more than a set of behavioural patterns that has perpetuated over time throughout the human network of the workplace. So, it can be changed...through training!

In anticipation of his "mini-sims" presentation at the 2016 Training Magazine conference, author and CEO Ed Muzio will show you how he uses training to do the impossible: create culture change. You'll experience one of his mini-sims in a virtual format, and you'll see how a tiny little exercise can be leveraged to a systematic behavioural change. In the process you'll have a little fun, and get a glimpse into how a little experience can go a long, long way.

Wednesday, December 2, 2015, 1PM – 2PM PST: The Five Behaviours of a Cohesive Team: Transforming Organizations with Teamwork (Free for ATD members)

While most organizations require their people to work in teams, few are able to truly capitalize on the strategic advantage of functional and cohesive teams. The process doesn’t have to be overly complicated, however.

Based on the bestselling book The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni, this webcast will offer a simple yet powerful framework that will help team members learn to work together more efficiently and effectively, leading to extraordinary business results. Attendees will:

• Learn about the five behaviours of a cohesive team framework and how to apply it to their teams.

• Access tips and tools for making teamwork their competitive advantage.

• Discover wisdom from the New York Times bestselling author of The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, Patrick Lencioni.

Thursday, December 3, 2015, 10AM – 11AM PST: 2015 Technology Awards Announcements

Join Brandon Hall Group executives as they announce the winners of the coveted 2015 Excellence in Technology Awards in a live web event!

Award winners announced here will also be honoured and featured in a Jan. 28 ceremony at Brandon Hall Group’s HCM Excellence Conference 2016 in Palm Beach Gardens, FL.

Technology award winners will be announced in over 50 categories within five sub-categories: Learning and Development, Talent Management, Talent Acquisition, HR/Workforce Management, and Sales Enablement.

Thursday, December 3, 2015, 10AM – 11AM PST: Go Figure! 4 Must-Have Needs Assessment Tools

Our organizations look to us to help solve performance problems, right? The challenge comes in where to start when figuring things out. Learn four key needs assessment tools to get you started making strategic and practical recommendations that work.

Join us for this hands-on, fast paced session where you’ll get to experience and “try on” the following assessment tools:

• Performance Analysis.

• Post Training Performance Analysis.

• Target Population Analysis.

• Task Analysis.

After this session you’ll be able to strategically approach almost any needs assessment challenge that comes your way. Come join us and let us help YOU figure it out!

Thursday, December 3, 2015, 11AM – 12PM PST: How to Drive Employee Engagement With Just-in-Time Learning (Free for ATD members)

Learning and development teams are always looking for ways to engage their employees and ensure their training “sticks.” But are we going about this training the wrong way?

Mobile content empowers employees with access to your training anytime, anywhere. By making your content digital, you can pack it full of interactive features and tools to enhance the learners’ experience and increase their engagement. This webcast will walk you through how to take advantage of just-in-time learning, including the:

• Evolution of training from a one-time event to a continuous learning process.

• Benefits of creating interactive learning tools.

• Power of mobile content.

Friday, December 4, 2015, 11AM – 12PM PST: What Fits Where? Maximizing Blended Learning by Choosing the Right Tools (Free for ATD members)

Blended learning is the ubiquitous term for using a variety of instructional delivery media to achieve a particular outcome—but how do you decide what to put in the blender? How do you know when to use classroom, e-learning, virtual classroom, mobile and social technologies, or one of the other instructional techniques as part of your blend?

Current research into the effects of the learning environment has shown that selecting the proper delivery media can have a profound effect on the learner experience and outcome. Training organizations are faced with a variety of delivery options, but do not have the experience to make informed choices. Instead of focusing on outcomes, the uninformed tend to focus on cost and ease of use. In the long term, an inappropriate media choice can cost much more. This webinar will provide criteria to make the best decision about delivery methodology.

This webinar will also provide techniques and tools to assist in matching content to the delivery method that maximizes learner engagement, including a decision tree to help determine what delivery technology best fits with a desired learning outcome. Attendees will discuss:

• The key decisions relating to media selection to optimize learner and organizational outcomes.

• Underlying factors that can influence delivery methodology in a blended instructional program.

• Emerging research in learner engagement.

Tuesday, December 8, 2015, 10AM – 11AM PST: Capturing the True Analytics of Learning

As learning technology advances and companies are able to deliver a wider array of experiences to their learners, organizations are faced with a new wave of data that can be tracked, measured, and acted upon. However, most companies are challenged by analyzing the data they already have, let alone a vast expanse of new data types. In fact, most companies are still only measuring course completions and smile sheets (didn’t we all think the instructor was great?).

In this webinar, join David Wentworth, Principal Analyst with Brandon Hall Group, and A.D. Detrick, Senior Consultant for Xerox Learning Services, as they look at the state of measurement and analytics within learning and how companies can get better at it. The session will feature data from Brandon Hall Group's research and real-world examples of companies using Xerox’s tools and expertise to truly measure learning and its impact on performance.

Discussion topics include:

• Learning measurement trends.

• Formal, informal, and social measurement.

• The effect of analytics on performance.

• Examples of companies using best measurement and analytics practices.

Tuesday, December 8, 2015, 10AM – 11AM PST: How the Right Sales Analytics Can Help You Close More Sales

Data is the order of the present day, no question. We have an insatiable appetite for data—everyone wants it—especially sales leaders. But, not all data is created equal.

There’s a substantial difference between having data and having the right data (and even more so, knowing what to do with it—the analytics side of the equation).

When it comes to setting quotas and driving revenue, certain data and analytics are critical. There are tools on the market today that can empower your sales team to be far more effective at closing more prospects while eliminating wasted time searching for collateral and reconstructing contact histories, all while giving you actionable insights to improve close rates across the sales organization.

Join this webinar to learn how the right sales enablement platform provides insight into:

• How your sales reps are pitching.

• What content your reps use in those pitches and how they customize it.

• How effective the pitches are with prospects.

• The impact of each pitch on opportunities and how quickly they move through the funnel.

• How to replicate best practices from top reps across the entire sales team.

You’ll walk away with solid direction on how to select a sales enablement platform that will help your sales team reach up to a 50 percent higher quota attainment than most companies. 

Tuesday, December 8, 2015, 11AM – 12PM PST: Avoiding Ugly E-Learning: Lessons from Holiday Sweaters (Free for ATD members)

’Tis the season of holiday sweaters—each lovingly created with good intent, sometimes gaudy, sometimes uncomfortable, sometimes utilitarian, but rarely as beautiful as imagined. The same can often be said about e-learning course designs. We start out with the intention to create something uniquely satisfying for our learners, but after accounting for strained resources, limited time, imperfect development tools, complex subject matter, and unpredictable learners, we end up with something not quite as beautiful as we’d hoped.

In this light-hearted holiday webcast, Ethan Edwards, chief instructional strategist at Allen Interactions, will share 12 lessons we can learn from common e-learning design and development pitfalls as he compares them to and celebrates ugly holiday sweaters! 

Wednesday, December 9, 2015, 10AM – 11AM PST: Best of Ecosystem: Mapping Your Organizational Learning Architecture

Understanding your learning architecture is critical for the success of major learning technology projects, but learning architecture can be complex and confusing. To be a successful partner to others in your organization, you need to be able to clearly explain your system to your stakeholders.

In this session, you’ll learn how to create a map that explains the connections between all the moving parts of your learning architecture and enables you to get buy-in on your plans and strategy. In creating your map, you’ll see how the learning technology components work together, including issues in the current architecture; this will greatly reduce confusion and time spent going over the details. You’ll learn how to find and choose images to represent components of your architecture, and how to clearly show the relationships between systems and the various data feeds. You’ll leave this session able to build your own map, clearly explain your plans, and show what a successful solution looks like.

Wednesday, December 9, 11AM – 12PM PST: Seeing Your Training through Rep-Coloured Glasses: New Approaches for Driving Sales Force Engagement and Results (Free for ATD members)

Today’s sales and talent development professionals are facing a unique set of challenges. The growth of mobile technology, increasingly complex solutions, greater competition, and the need for reps to engage in more value-added selling techniques have forced training organizations to innovate to keep pace.

The good news is that powerful digital options for managing and measuring team performance are making it possible to engage sales teams in exciting new ways, uncovering what their teams really know while making those data actionable across the enterprise. In this webcast, the presenters will share lessons learned from their own experience, including how to:

• Extend learning beyond the learning management system to critical sales systems.

• Create a data-driven coaching culture that motivates both reps and managers.

• Turn your sales reps into problem solvers rather than “pitch men.”

Wednesday, December 9, 12PM – 1PM PST: Building Apps Without Coding for Use in Training

The explosion of apps is undeniable. Is there any use for apps in your training? There certainly is a good case for it. And even with a good case to use apps in your learning and training delivery, could you create one yourself? Sophisticated app production can cost thousands of dollars and take months. There is an option to build simple apps for free, with no coding knowledge required.

Neal Rowland will show you how to create an app and have it ready to publish, if you choose to, by the end of the three-hour hands-on session at the Training Magazine conference in Orlando in February. For now, in this session, see what is possible with your app and some things to consider in developing your own apps.

In this webinar, you will learn:

• Why you may wish to build apps for your training needs.

• Possibilities for using apps in various training situations.

• Resources to build your own apps with no coding required.

Thursday, December 10, 2015, 10AM – 11AM PST: 5 Ways to Get Real Training Implementation

As a trainer, do you find that implementation of what you teach is the downfall of a lot of training? According to the ATD, 90 percent of what trainees learn is lost by the time they return to the job. How do you help make the learning stick?

Enter the Never-Ending Course.

In this webinar, Ellen Finkelstein will show you how you can:

• Repurpose your course materials so they are always available to trainees.

• Use your LMS, a wiki, or online Knowledge Base as a permanent reference for trainees.

• Continue to involve the trainer or SME long after the course ends.

• Include managers so they can support the learning and implementation.

• Use the after-the-course infrastructure to improve the course the next time.

You’ll go away with a new blueprint for structuring training!

Thursday, December 10, 2015, 11AM – 12PM PST: Smarter Employees and Self-Directed Learning (Free for ATD members)

Self-directed learning is becoming an integral part of employee learning and development. But what is self-directed learning, and how do you implement it? Instructure’s Jeff Weber will answer these questions and more during this webcast, which will focus on:

• Current trends in self-directed learning.

• How to engage people in self-directed learning.

• How corporate learning is evolving.

• Tools and techniques companies use to drive self-directed learning.

• The requirements behind self-directed learning.

Friday, December 11, 2015, 9AM – 10AM PST: Ask-a-Coach: Advancing Your Career in Human Capital (ATD member/subscriber content)

Do your career development needs get sidelined while you help others in your organization? Have you ever wished for a coach who could help you with your own career development issues?

Monday, December 14, 2015, 11AM – 12PM PST: Triggers: Becoming the Person We Want to Be (ATD member/subscriber content)

Marshall Goldsmith is the world’s authority in helping successful leaders achieve positive, lasting behaviour. In this fast-paced, interactive webcast, he will share his insights on why we don’t become the person we want to be—why change is so difficult for all of us. 

Tuesday, December 15, 2015, 10AM – 11AM PST: Driving Cultural Change with Your LMS

In 2015, the Einstein Noah Restaurant Group and Caribou Coffee merged. Rather than absorbing either brand into the other, they decided to maintain each, yet operate as one organization; the organization nearly doubled in size, with over 11,000 employees total. As part of the merger, they also created a new co-brand that would put both brands in the same location. These decisions resulted in some unusual challenges and opportunities for the learning and development and communication teams. The distinct culture of each organization had played a vital part each of their successes, so the challenge was how to merge operational and process training under one umbrella and create a new unique organizational culture while still maintaining the strong cultural foundations of each brand.

Mike Rael of Einstein Noah will explain the decision and strategy driving this cultural shift in L&D and communication and discuss leveraging a new LMS implementation as a vehicle to accomplish the transition. 

Tuesday, December 15, 2015, 10AM – 11AM PST: Beyond SCORM: Tracking Learning with the Experience API

We’ve all worked with SCORM for years and are comfortable with what it is and how it works. But now there’s a new way to track learning events called Experience API (xAPI). It’s been called “The next generation of SCORM,” but xAPI is very different in a lot of ways.

In this webinar, the webinar facilitators will look at how xAPI stacks up against SCORM, how it’s similar and different, what data each makes available for reporting, what xAPI content looks like versus SCORM Content, and a couple of examples that xAPI can do that SCORM never could. In the end, you’ll have a better idea how xAPI can help you to better track the learning experiences of your students, wherever they may be!

The webinar facilitators will discuss:

• The basics of the Experience API (xAPI).

• How xAPI is different from SCORM.

• When either makes sense to use.

• Tracking events away from the computer.

Tuesday, December 15, 2015, 11AM – 12PM PST: TD Magazine: Trends to Follow in 2016 (ATD member/subscriber content)

Based on the cover story in the October 2015 issue of TD, this webcast will provide an eclectic look at trends affecting the talent development industry. ATD editor-at-large Pat Galagan will help talent development professionals. 

Thursday, December 17, 2015, 9AM – 10AM PST: State of the Industry (Free for ATD members)

The State of the Industry report is ATD’s definitive review of training and development trends. In this webcast, ATD research analyst Maria Ho will discuss learning benchmarking data from ATD’s State of the Industry report from 2007 to present. The webcast will explore trends in key learning metrics, including:

• Direct learning expenditure.

• The average number of training hours used by employees.

• The average cost per learning hour.

• What methods of training companies are using.

• Content areas that companies are focusing on.

Maria will also look at these key metrics for ATD’s 2015 BEST Award–winning organizations, which were recognized for their commitment to talent development. 

Thursday, December 17, 2015, 10AM – 11AM PST: Improving the Bottom Line: Should Training Graduate to a Corporate University?

There comes a time when an organization needs to decide how to approach learning. Will it be a tactical delivery of skills and compliance training, or a strategic endeavour with an impact on organizational performance? There are some important differentiators between the corporate university model and a traditional training department. Corporate universities traditionally align with an organization’s strategic initiatives, offer a model that compels learners to grow and develop and can actually help boost an organization’s bottom line.

Join David Wentworth and Ben Eubanks, Learning Analysts with Brandon Hall Group, as they examine what exactly a corporate university is, what it isn’t, and how it differs from standard training functions.

Attendees of this session will come away with a better understanding of the following:

• What makes a corporate university different from training.

• Extending the enterprise and generating revenue.

• The role of the LMS in a corporate university.

• Real-world examples of successful corporate universities.

Thursday, December 17, 2015, 10AM – 11AM PST: Improving Performance through Debriefing Techniques

Real learning comes not from experiential activities but from the debriefing discussions that follow the activity. In the hands of a skilled facilitator, the experiential activity is just an excuse for powerful debriefing.

In this interactive webinar, we will explore the why, when, and how of debriefing. You will learn about the games after the game that counteract the anticlimactic feeling that frequently accompanies a debriefing discussion.

Thursday, December 17, 2015, 12PM – 1PM PST: Micro-Learning: Faster, Better and Cheaper Ways to Train Employees

Research has shown that 70 percent of learners are likely to be on-demand learners. They learn by small bits and pieces following their needs and interests. The problem is that most organizations deliver massive, bulky and long learning that discourages the on-demand learners. It also undermines the potential gains for learners and workers to improve performance by learning through small bits and pieces.

In this webinar, you will understand and gain important insights on how to combine your large courses with small bits and pieces of content. You will also view actual examples on how to allow flexibility and yet keep the structure of your “controlled” courses from on-demand-driven learning content.

Topics covered:

• Why is micro-learning booming?

• What are the new on-demand learning behaviours?

• How do you organize “controlled” courses to allow small bits and pieces of learning?

• How do you design lessons for both classroom and eLearning to have flexible structures?

• What are cases of real-life savings in development, delivery and improvement of learning with micro-learning?