A game-changing day

If you haven't yet heard about Apple's announcements at today's Apple 'Educational Event', watch the keynote here. The focus of the talk is what they call interactive textbooks for the iPad - but these 'textbooks' are more sophisticated than a lot of basic eLearning, allowing for video, images and even quiz questions. The FREE tool they have launched to build iBooks, iBooks Author, appears to be easy to use, especially if you're familiar with the iWork tools like Keynote and Pages. Have some content in a Word doc? Just drag and drop into iBooks Author and it will build a book based on the styles in the doc. Drop in pictures, video, even HTML 5/Javascript widgets. Publish very simply to iBooks and share. And this is just the tip of the iceberg - there are so many cool features like note taking, glossary, study cards and more.

It's easy to see how this is a game changer not just for K-12 and university students, but also the world of adult learning. The focus might be on kids right now, but there is so much potential for application in the workplace, especially as iPads gain more traction in the business world. It will be interesting to see what the future holds for iBooks and iBooks Author - I can't wait to try it out!

Kick off 2012 with free webinars

It’s the start of a brand new year and the perfect time to make plans for personal development in 2012. Check out the variety of interesting free T&D webinars being offered this month. We hope they will inspire and motivate you.

Wednesday, January 4, 2012, 10AM – 11AM PST: An Active Approach to Communications Training

Join Thiagi and Tracy Tagliati in a webinar that will explore a variety of high-impact activities, jolts, and interactive learning strategies that have been specifically chosen to teach and apply some of the most critical communication competencies and concepts that we all need. 

Thursday, January 5, 2012, 11AM – 12PM PST: (for ASTD members only)

Yawn-Proof Your eLearning

Finding yourself a bit bored with the e-learning you've been creating lately? Looking to jazz up your e-learning courses, but don't have the resources to create a 3-D immersive learning game that can be delivered on your iPhone? Need to get your content turned around fast – but without sacrificing engagement?  Join Cammy Bean to explore strategies and tips for creating quality e-learning in a rapid timeframe without breaking the bank. You'll see examples of incoming content received from clients, discuss the approach to rapid design, and talk about some of the specific strategies you can use to maximize engagement with minimal investment.

Tuesday, January 10, 2012, 10AM – 11AM PST: How to Guarantee that Creativity and Innovation Flows Year Round in Your Organization

Based on empirical research, Dr. Robert Epstein, one of the world's leading experts on creativity and innovation, will summarize 10 practical techniques for spurring creativity and innovation in an organization on an ongoing basis, such as using a "shifting" technique for teams and making sure that all assignments and goals are stated in an "open-ended" fashion.

Tuesday, January 10, 2012, 11AM – 12PM PST: (for ASTD members only)

3 Simple Steps to Convert Classroom Training to Virtual Training

One minute of classroom time does not equal one minute of virtual classroom time–some activities simply don’t translate or even make sense online. How do you know what to reuse versus what to build from scratch?  Join this interactive webinar to discover the answer and begin to convert your classroom training to virtual training using 3 simple guidelines.

Wednesday, January 11, 2012, 10AM – 11AM PST: Learn to Use PowerPoint for More Than Boring Presentations

PowerPoint's gotten a bad rap. Sure we've all had to sit through hours of boring presentations. But is that PowerPoint's fault?  With the right skills, PowerPoint is one of the best multimedia applications out there. Join Tom Kuhlmann, VP of Community for Articulate as he shares ways to get more our out of PowerPoint. In this session you'll learn how to use PowerPoint to create illustrations and all sorts of multimedia.

Wednesday, January 11, 2012, 10AM – 11AM PST: New Year, New Trends – LMS 2012

Join Stacey Harris, VP of Research, Brandon Hall Group, and Donald Taylor, Chairman, Learning and Performance Institute, as they discuss how the world of learning and development will change in 2012—in particular how L & D focus will continue to shift from “learning and development” to “knowledge and performance.” They’ll share insights on the trends to take action on today, as well as those that you’ll need to keep an eye on throughout the year.

Thursday, January 12, 2012, 10AM – 11AM PST: Buried Alive: Human Productivity in the 21st Century

Unnecessary interruptions are consuming 28 percent of a knowledge workers’ day. Knowledge workers indicate in survey results that 40% of their time is spent on irrelevant activities.  In today’s world of unlimited information, technology and opportunities, why is it that people are finding themselves more “buried alive” than ever before?  During this session participants will discover the 21st century’s three key problems that are hindering the capabilities and potential of today’s workforce and their dramatic “hidden costs” taking its toll on organizational results.

Thursday, January 12, 2012, 11AM – 12PM PST: Twitter 101: The Basics and Tips for Learning Use

Twitter is an excellent tool to leverage for both personal and professional learning and growth, and more and more organizations are harnessing its power as part of learning programs. And with that, many learning professionals are encountering the same challenges, such as: How can I use Twitter in my learning programs if I don't even know how to use Twitter myself? What is the platform's value? We will explain what Twitter is, walk through the steps to (properly) set up a twitter account, define much of the technical Twitter terminology, and share some examples of how learning professionals are using the platform.

Tuesday, January 17, 2012, 10AM – 11AM PST: Modern Mentoring: Harnessing the Collective Knowledge, Skills, Abilities and Passions of Today’s Workforce

Technology and innovative thinking have revitalized mentoring and extended its developmental benefits to the entire enterprise. No longer just about one-to-one relationships between senior leaders and potential successors, today’s mentoring is focused on removing the barriers between people and engaging them in rich learning and teaching opportunities. Join Michael Rochelle, Chief Business Development Officer for the Brandon Hall Group, and Randy Emelo, President and CEO of Triple Creek, as they discuss the strategies that make modern mentoring more valuable than ever.

Wednesday, January 18, 2012, 10AM – 11AM PST: The Trainer as Peak Performer: Scale the Heights

In this webinar, learn how to identify peak performance in yourself and the trainers who work for you. Develop your training skills improvement plan based on 100 Training Clinic instructor behaviors and activities in ten competency areas. Become a peak performer in the classroom or on-the-job.

Thursday, January 19, 2012, 10AM – 11AM PST: Generation Next: Creating Experiences that Engage

When it comes to learning, Generation Next learners have high expectations. They expect something more than last year’s enterprise-wide learning platform interface, something that looks and feels more like the sites they already frequent in other parts of their lives. Organizations are responding to these expectations by creating engaging, personalized experiences that use gamification and branding strategies to build experiences that are inviting, motivating, and feel familiar to tomorrow’s learners.
Join Scot Lake, Senior Learning Analyst for Brandon Hall Group, and Dan Medakovic, VP, Learning Solutions at Blatant Media as they discuss strategies for engaging Generation Next’s learners.

Friday, January 20, 2012, 10AM – 11AM PST: Getting Great ROI from Attending the Training 2012 Conference

If you will be attending the Training 2012 Conference, join Jack Philips, Chairman of the ROI institute in this thought-provoking webcast to explore how conferences are being evaluated from the participants’ perspective. It shows how you, as a potential conference participant, can judge the ROI of a conference in advance of attending. It presents a system to track what you do with what you learned, including impact and financial ROI. In this session, we will also offer you an opportunity to measure your ROI for attending the Training 2012 Conference. This offer includes participating in a collaborative study to show your ROI for attending.

Tuesday, January 24, 2012, 10AM – 11AM PST: Meeting the Mobile Need: Strategies for Developing Meaningful Mobile Content

With the explosive growth of mobile device use, today’s workforce is connected and ready to engage—wherever and whenever. But how do organizations go about delivering mobile learning that is effective and well received? What content lends itself to mobile delivery, and how must content developers think and design differently? Join Scot Lake, Sr. Analyst for Brandon Hall Group, and Chris Van Wingerden, of dominKnow Learning Solutions, as they discuss the end-to-end process for designing and developing the most effective mobile learning experiences for today’s connected workforce.

Wednesday, January 25, 2012, 10AM – 11AM PST: Designing 3-Minute or Less eLearning Programs

Chunking, miniaturizing and boiling down content to fit into short and quick lessons for eLearning and mobile learning are difficult tasks: How does one know what content keep and throwaway? Furthermore, traditional content design assumes that learners must learn all the content. The challenge is that it leads to bloated, long, boring and costly eLearning and impossible to deliver in mobile learning. In this session, you will learn a content design process that shows you step-by-step how to boil down and chunk your content. You will learn how to create 3-minute eLearning lessons.

Wednesday, January 25, 2012, 10AM – 11AM PST: Through the Looking Glass: 2012 Learning Function Trends

Many learning professionals and leaders are wondering when their jobs shifted from instructional designers and content developers, to social media mavens, workflow analysts, and content filters. The fact is that in a world where over 48 hours of YouTube videos are uploaded every minute, content is really not the problem. Businesses are looking for tomorrow’s learning function to turn the reams of content we are generating into opportunities and increase performance. To do that, the learning function simply has to change. Join Stacey Harris, VP of Research for Brandon Hall Group, as she shares key findings from recent research on award winning learning functions and their new approaches to creating not just effective learning, but learning eco-systems that support sustained performance improvement.

Thursday, January 26, 2012, 10AM – 11AM PST: Great Ideas from Practice: Lessons Learned from Cases in Training and Development

Looking for some great ideas that have proven successful? Join Saul Carliner, associate professor with the graduate program in Educational Technology at Concordia University in Montreal, who will present several practical tips for designing, developing, and implementing training that have been gleaned from cases of real-world training and development projects.

Tuesday, January 31, 2012, 10AM – 11AM PST: What do Projects and EQ Have to Do with Each Other?

Juggling multiple learning projects with multiple players while trying to do your REAL job makes you FRANXIOUS (frustrated and anxious). Join Lou Russell, President and CEO of L+EARN and Russell Martin & Associates to learn simple project management techniques to start a project and a little emotional awareness and regulation to reduce the chaos as the project progresses.

Free December webinars

Christmas and the New Year are both just around the corner but there’s still time to take advantage of a few more free training and development webinars on a variety of interesting topics. Hope to “see” you online.

Tuesday, December 6, 2011, 10AM – 11AM PST: Experience is the Best Teacher – Capturing and Deploying Experience using Simulations and Immersive Learning Techniques

In this workshop, you’ll learn a methodology for capturing and ultimately deploying simulations which translate specific experience into learning modalities that engage the learner and help them apply the simulated experience to real-life situations. The result of this approach is that Simulations, once thought of as unrealistic because of cost and time, can become a key part of any organizations learning portfolio in a very practical manner.

Tuesday, December 6, 2011, 11:30AM – 12:30PM PST: Engaging Your Workforce Through Development and Career Pathing

Organizations need to begin to think about recognition differently—both in terms of development and career-pathing. They need to take into account a number of important factors, including feedback, mentoring, education, sponsorship, career management and work/life balance.  Join Stacey Harris of the Brandon Hall Group as she shares her latest research in these key areas, detailing proven, award-winning practices of how organizations of all sizes are engaging their workforces and recognizing valuable employee assets through various development and career-pathing opportunities.

Wednesday, December 7, 2011, 10AM – 11AM PST: Talent Management System Selection: Top 10 Questions to Ask Yourself and Your Vendors

Join Stacey Harris, VP of Research for Brandon Hall Group as she shares insights on the Top 10 Questions to ask your organization and the Top 10 Questions to ask prospective vendors when researching talent management system options.  She’ll take a deep look at questions like; real global needs, or process automation readiness as well as issues like solution provider testing processes or actual support offerings.

Thursday, December 8, 2011, 10AM – 11AM PST: Design Lively eLearning with Action Mapping

In this webinar, you'll learn a quick way to replace dry information with creative, high-energy activities. Learn about a four-step process that will help you:

• Brainstorm lively, engaging activities that help learners apply new knowledge on the job

• Identify what content really needs to be included and what can be cut

• Convince your subject matter experts to agree to the cuts

• Design materials that intrigue and challenge learners--and change their real-world behavior

Thursday, December 8, 2011, 10AM – 11AM PST: The Brandon Hall Group Award Winners Webinar Series: The Cisco Learning Network: A Social Success Reaching 480,000 Members

The Learning@Cisco team focused on creating a new way to communicate and collaborate, through Web 2.0 social networking tools including shared wikis, blogs, discussion boards and using web-based learning tools to provide rich feedback and a collaborative learning environment. As part of Brandon Hall Group’s Award Winners Webinar Series, join Jeanne Beliveau- Dunn, VP and GM for Learning@Cisco, as she shares how Cisco has taken e-learning from a cost center to an important strategic element, a valued customer resource, and a key driver of Cisco's continued success.

Thursday, December 8, 2011, 12PM – 1PM PST: AAA University Case Study on Content Management: Creating a self-sustaining learning model

How do you effectively meet the learning needs of over 8,000 internal and external learners, across 23 states – in a federation business model - with a shrinking learning function?  You create a learning system that is self-sustaining and powerful. Join Scot Lake, Sr. Learning Analyst for Brandon Hall Group and key members of the AAA University, at AAA NCNU Insurance Exchange as they share their approach and workflow for creating business information and training materials which leverages metadata-driven content aggregation. They will also share how, leveraging a Learning Content Management System (LCMS), they’ve designed their program to support dynamic content delivery that meets the unique needs of their diverse audiences.

Monday, December 12, 2011, 10AM – 11AM PST: Instant Learning through Story and Experience Sharing

Do you feel at times you have to cram too much content into short lessons? So the tendency of the designers is to compact and squeeze big content lessons. The problem is that learners can't learn instantly compacted lessons. However, instant learning happens by using experiences and stories and embedding the content. This session shows you how to create instant learning by applying tested methods in cognitive sciences, social and behavioral sciences. You will learn step-by-step methods and see live demos from real-life cases on how stories and experience can fast track learning.

Wednesday, December 14, 2011, 10AM – 11AM PST: Top Ten Challenges When Implementing Blended Learning

This session addresses the most common challenges an implementation may encounter when designing and implementing a blended learning solution, and provides strategies on how to anticipate these challenges and minimize their impact. Technological, organizational, and instructional concerns will be addressed.

Thursday, December 15, 2011, 10AM – 11AM PST: Benefits & Barriers to Social Learning: Discuss, Network & Share

What are the leading benefits & barriers to implementing social learning? Jeanne Meister, Partner of Future Workplace and best-selling author of The 2020 Workplace: How Innovative Companies Attract, Develop & Keep Tomorrow's Employees Today co-author is joined with Glenn Scott (Global Leader - Technology-Enabled Learning) of P&G to discuss benefits and barriers to social learning.

Learn:

• Key benefits & barriers of social learning as uncovered in leading best selling book, The 2020 Workplace

• How to anticipate barriers and communicate benefits

• What you can do to overcome barriers

• Participate in group poll on crowdsourcing your benefits and barriers

• Discuss a plan of action for moving to build a business case for social learning

• How P&G has used social media to drive innovation in building the learning brand and making connections to learn together

This webinar will also share pre work for our session entitled (Social Learning: Drivers, Practices & Business Alignment for Re-Imagining Learning) on FEB 13th at Training 2012.

Monday, December 19, 2011, 10AM – 11AM PST: Getting Great ROI from Attending the Training 2012 Conference

This thought-provoking webcast will explore how conferences are being evaluated from the participants’ perspective.  It shows how you, as a potential conference participant, can judge the ROI of a conference in advance of attending.  It presents a system to track what you do with what you learned, including impact and financial ROI. In this session, you will also be given an opportunity to measure your ROI for attending the Training 2012 Conference.   This offer includes participating in a collaborative study to show your ROI for attending.

Free November webinars

Check out the free training and development webinars this month on a variety of interesting topics. Hope to “see” you online.

Wednesday, November 2, 2011, 10AM – 11AM PST: 11 ½  Tips for Designing Slides and Interactions for Live Online Training (members-only webcast)

In a short-attention-span culture, it can be challenging for trainers and instructional designers to engage online learners. Fortunately, many issues of getting and keeping attention can be solved before getting in front of class. Join Roger Courville, webinar expert and author of The Virtual Presenter’s Handbook, to jumpstart your success when designing slides and interactions for the virtual, instructor-led environment.

To register, go to http://www.astd.org/ and click on the Webcasts tab.

Thursday, November 3, 2011, 10AM – 11AM PST: Best Practices in Upgrading Learning Technologies: Reduce Fear and Create a Strategy for Success

Join Stacey Harris, VP of Research for Brandon Hall Group, and Saba's Naren Patil, senior director of product marketing, as they share insights that can help reduce your fear of change and increase your odds of success. They'll discuss best practices from hundreds of successful transitions for creating a strategy for the upgrade, as well as tools and tricks for preparing your organization for a limited-impact change.

 

Tuesday, November 8, 2011, 10AM – 11AM PST: Making Money with your LMS: Innovative Ways to Extend the Reach of your LMS

Extending the use of learning technology to external channels and audiences not only creates avenues for increased revenue, but also creates unique occasions to increase brand awareness and marketing impact. Join Scot Lake, Sr. Analyst for Brandon Hall Group, and Matt Gilley, Co-Founder of Intellum, as they share real life examples and key practices in leveraging learning technology to increase value and reach multiple audiences across existing internal and external supply chains.

Wednesday, November 9, 2011, 10AM – 11AM PST: Low-Cost, Best Practices for Converting Instructor Led Training to eLearning

This presentation will discuss the key differences in the design approach between ILT and e-learning. It will also provide insight into the e-learning development process. What roles are required? How do you estimate development time and cost? What are the trade-offs between different types of development tools? What new tools (such as storyboards, testing scripts, etc.) are required?

Wednesday, November 9, 2011, 10AM – 11AM PST: Is Mobile Learning Right for You?

Mobile Learning creates a unique channel of communication that can be personalized for the individual learner and their learning style.  Mobile learning offers the ability to have just in time/just for me learning access to highly relevant content that can be immediately put to use by the learner. But is Mobile Learning right for your organization and how do you decide? This session will delve into the decision-making criteria and key considerations that should drive an organization’s assessment of Mobile Learning.

Friday, November 11, 2011, 10AM – 11AM PST: 10 Cases of Bungled eLearning Implementation – Lessons Learned

In this session, Ray Jimenez will share his 10 most bungled up elearning implementations - horror stories that after resolution breathed life and improved the eLearning programs and systems. Ray will share specific cases and real-life events from his 15 years implementing elearning projects. The experiences and real-life cases help you take a closer look at implementation issues and how to avoid them.

Tuesday November 15, 2011, 10AM – 11AM PST: Blended Learning in Mid-Sized Organizations: Deliverting Engaging Learning to Today’s Audiences

When it comes to employee performance, the two critical factors that influence improvement are motivation and ability. The best learning experiences consider both of these performance needs. Creating a learning environment that meets these goals, while engaging today’s diverse learning audiences, can be challenging for any organization, but it is especially challenging for today’s quickly growing small and medium-sized business market. It requires multiple learning approaches and effective delivery. Join Scot Lake, Senior Learning Analyst for the Brandon Hall Group, in a discussion on the key practices of designing and delivering effective blended learning programs.  Hear about award winning examples with solid business outcomes that have inspired and engaged their audiences.

Tuesday November 29, 2011, 10AM – 11AM PST: Structured Sharing: Orchestrated Spontaneity

Join Thiagi and Tracy Tagliati who will explore a special type of training activity that facilitates mutual learning and teaching among participants. They are called structured sharing activities, because they provide a flexible strategy that creates a context for a dialogue among participants based on their experiences, knowledge, and opinions. They will share several structured sharing activities, and will give you the resources to develop more.

Wednesday, November 30, 2011, 10AM – 11AM PST: Stop, Look, Listen and Apply – Adding Contemplation in eLearning

Leading critics of technologies like Sherry Turkle (author Alone Together) and David Brooks (author of The Social Animal) and suggest that the abundance of technologies, while there are great benefits, also forces people to imbed gazillions of knowledge and information, but failing to process the information into useful and valuable to impact performance. In this session, Ray Jimenez will share four case studies on how to add the contemplation process in the eLearning design.

Free October webinars

There are a multitude of free training and development webinars this month on a variety of interesting topics. Hope to “see” you online.

Tuesday, October 4, 2011, 11AM – 12PM PST: Low-Cost, High-Impact Training on Demand

Join Kendra Lee, president of KLA Group, and Knoodle's Kelly Smith to learn about cost-effective, quick, and easy strategies for creating and implementing on-demand learning in your small or mid-size organization. You will explore moving from a "push" training model to a "pull" one, in which content comes from subject matter experts and peers rather than corporate trainers, how to repurpose training courses into learning nuggets that can be accessed anytime, anywhere and how to incorporate social learning tools into your training arsenal.

 

October 5, 11, 12, 18, 19, 25 or 28, 2011, 10AM – 11AM PST: Create and deliver Self-Paced Training in 30 minutes or less

You’ll learn secrets to help you create training in minutes by infusing your presentations with audio, video, surveys and more, engage your audience through interactive and collaborative learning and deliver training anywhere, anytime with a 100% hosted solution.

 

Wednesday, October 5, 2011, 9AM – 10AM PST: Chaos is not Performance: Learning Project Management for Stability

Join Lou Russell, President and CEO of L+EARN and Russell Martin & Associates learn how to organize and prioritize your individual scalability.  Get things done and be more effective.

Tuesday, October 11, 2011, 10:30AM – 11:30AM PST: The New Learning Architect

The new learning architect designs environments that help specific populations take maximum advantage of multiple learning opportunities. To do this, new learning architects need to understand the unique characteristics of their target populations and the business challenges those populations face. New learning architects need to find the right balance between top-down and bottom-up learning initiatives, between formal and informal learning. Join Clive Shepherd, author of The New Learning Architect as he explains what it means to be a new learning architect and how becoming one could transform the contribution you make to your organization.

 

Wednesday, October 12, 2011, 10AM – 11AM PST: Today’s Innovations, Tomorrows Trends: Learning Technology that Meets Learners Expectations

Join Scot Lake, Senior Learning Analyst for Brandon Hall Group, and Jeff Whitney, OutStart’s Vice President of Worldwide Marketing, as they discuss the innovations, the challenges, and the real-life successes around today’s innovations in learning.

Thursday, October 13, 2011, 10AM – 11AM PST: Presenting and Training When You’re Not in the Room: Virtual Training, Webinars, and Video Conferences

Join Jeff Hiller, Senior Trainer and Workshop Leader , from JB Training Solutions who will give you the inside tips and techniques you need to deliver effective presentations and training sessions when you’re not in the room. Through interactive exercises, you will learn strategies for conveying a strong, clear message to your target audience remotely.

For ASTD members:

Thursday, October 13, 2011, 10AM – 11AM PST: Web 3.0 and Mobile Learning Technologies

Join David Wentworth, Senior Analyst  from i4cp who will discuss various components of Web 3.0 and how they might influence the future of learning, with an emphasis on the practices of high-performance organizations. What does mobile learning mean for learning professionals and the learning function? How will it affect instructional design? What influence, if any, will device manufacturers, platform providers, and software developers have on mobile learning’s future? To register, go to http://www.astd.org/ and click on the Webcasts tab.

Wednesday, October 19, 2011, 10AM – 11AM PST: Developing Talent in the New World of Business

Organizations must be agile, they must be able to adapt and leverage technology to create an environment that allows high performers to grow professionally and, ultimately, develop new skills that will lead businesses into the future. Join Claire Schooley, Sr. Analyst from Forrester Research who will explore new leadership skills, competencies and how to develop leaders who have the attributes the business will need to remain competitive.

Wednesday, October 19, 2011, 8AM – 9AM PST:  Making 360′s Smarter and Simpler

Join Knowledge Advisors who will share industry best practices, and years of real world experience, to increase the effectiveness and efficiency of your 360 degree assessment process.

Tuesday, October 25, 2011, 10AM – 11AM PST: Selecting and LMS: Converging your Business Needs with Emerging Learning Trends

Join, Scot Lake, Senior Analyst at Brandon Hall Group and Kenneth Fung, EVP of Product Strategy at CERTPOINT as they share best practices in selecting an enterprise learning solution that will meet an organizations business needs for today and prepare them for the learning trends of tomorrow.  Learn how key learning trends that could impact your organization in the next three years , award winning approaches to selecting solution providers that meet today’s needs and tomorrows challenges, the impact of managing and partnering with solution providers effectively and the value of an effective and well implemented enterprise learning solution.

Wednesday, October 26, 2011, 10AM – 11AM PST: Interactive Lectures is not an Oxymoron

Interactive Lectures involve the participants in the learning process while providing complete control to the instructor. These activities enable a quick and easy conversion of a passive presentation into an interactive experience. Join Thiagi of the Thiagi Group and Tracy Tagliati from Move, Inc. as they explore different types of interactive lectures that incorporate built-in quizzes, interspersed tasks, and teamwork interludes.

Monitor and Evaluate

#9 of 9 in our weekly succession planning blog post series:

Our guest blogger, Paul Riley is life-long learner of Organizational Leadership and Change who applies systems thinking and community development principles to help people work more effectively together within the complex human systems we create.

This week’s blog post focuses on the last principle of the 7 principles of successful Succession Planning: #7: Monitor and Evaluate. Succession planning and leadership development programs should be continuously monitored and evaluated to help stakeholders understand what works, why it works, and what impact it’s having on the organization’s leadership pipeline. People often think of evaluation as an activity that’s done at the end of the program. However, it’s important that evaluation plays an integral role in the process from the beginning, during program planning and implementation, with a focus on long-term outcomes and continuous improvement.

Program evaluation starts with the end in mind. In other words, you must identify the goals and long-term outcomes of the program to understand what you’re evaluating. I like to start by establishing an explicit program theory to describe how and why a set of activities are expected to lead to anticipated outcomes and impacts. I often use a logic model with the organizations I work with to show the chain of reasoning by connecting the program’s parts using “if...then” statements to illustrate a sequence of causes and effects. The planning process begins with a discussion among stakeholders about strategies that will contribute to the program’s desired results. In essence, this conversation is about the program’s theory.

The logic model I mentioned above is an iterative tool that provides a simple framework which is revisited throughout the program planning, implementation, and evaluation phases. The terms ‘logic model’ and ‘program theory’ are often used interchangeably because the model describes how a program works and to what extent. The W.K. Kellogg foundation provides a very useful Logic Model Development Guide,  which was developed for the non-profit sector but is particularly useful for evaluating programs designed for organizational and behavioural change, regardless of sector.

Although a logic model provides a useful framework for establishing and presenting the program’s theory, the framework doesn’t provide much detail about how to select indicators. So for this, I recommend incorporating frameworks into the evaluation program that are designed for evaluating training, succession planning, and leadership development programs. For instance, Bennett’s Hierarchy describes seven successive levels to evaluate training and development programs. The hierarchy starts with inputs and activities at the bottom, which Bennett asserts are the simplest level of evaluation that provide the least value in determining whether a program is effective. At the top of the hierarchy are social, economic, and environmental outcomes, which Bennett believes represent the highest aim for educational programs and are often the most complex to measure. Kirkpatrick also provides a model to evaluate training programs, which includes four levels: (1) participant reaction, (2) learning, (3) behaviour change, and (4) organizational results. William Rothwell, author of Effective Succession Planning, proposes an adaptation of Kirkpatrick’s four-level model to evaluate succession planning programs, which includes: (1) customer satisfaction, (2) program progress, (3) effective placements, and (4) organizational outcomes.

Combining the frameworks proposed by Bennett, Kirkpatrick, Rothwell, and others, provides different lenses through which to look at the various aspects of the program’s theory. While the logic model provides a general framework to guide program planning, implementation, and evaluation, these other models offer a more targeted focus on establishing indicators to measure program outcomes and impacts. Incorporating multiple evaluation methods is likely to offset weaknesses and complement strengths of different models, and it allows evaluators to confirm results, which enhances the integrity of program evaluation by producing more accurate measurements. Mixed-method evaluation programs are also more likely to reflect the needs of program participants and stakeholders, by looking at things from a variety of perspectives, which is likely to produce better evaluation designs and more targeted recommendations.

One of the main challenges I encounter when establishing an evaluation program is that people in the organization often feel like they don’t have the time or the resources to devote to evaluation. They are too busy delivering succession planning and leadership development programs to reflect on whether what they’re doing is working. So, I recommend enlisting the help of participants of the program. Participative processes, such as empower evaluation, increase the likelihood that evaluation will happen, because users who are actively involved are more likely to understand the process and feel ownership. Furthermore, you can kill two birds with one stone by achieving program outcomes while facilitating data collection and analysis.

Creating flexibility in the evaluation process might also help to increase participation. For instance, I often work with organizations to develop a small “menu” from which users can select indicators for evaluation. This allows stakeholders to establish measurements that reflect their concerns, whereas an exhaustive list of indicators may be perceived as cumbersome and unrealistic in terms of data collection. An evaluation process that’s both flexible and participative will help to accommodate the many different contexts, goals and outcomes within the organization, and facilitate learning.

Stakeholders must be engaged in the monitoring and evaluation process from the beginning and throughout the life of the program to ensure indicators measure what is important to the organization, rather than focusing only on what is easily measured. Without clear, timely, accurate, and visible indicators, stakeholders will struggle to work toward the program’s goals, because they won’t have a clear understanding of what impact activities, outputs, and outcomes are having in building a leadership pipeline. Active participation ensures that assessment is rooted in the direct experiences of the organization and grounded in the organization’s vision, values, goals, and objectives.

Be sure to check out our other Succession Planning blog posts in this series:

What’s so important about Succession Planning? 

The 7 principles for successful Succession Planning

Aligning Succession Planning programs with the organization’s strategy

Combine Succession Planning and Leadership Development

Include all levels of the organization

Provide opportunities for practice, feedback, and reflection

Promote Openness and Transparency

Develop Simple, Flexible, and Decentralized Processes and Tools

Does the speed at which technology is changing and the pace of our modern world mean it’s okay to be a sloppy writer?

I’ve been thinking about this question lately, and a book I was reading on my Kindle prompted it all. I’m a voracious reader and I run the gamut from serious tomes to what I call “candy” reading in my choices. I was recently reading a book that admittedly leaned toward the latter category, one that I’d chosen to read as it was receiving some acclaim for huge sales and a strong following even though it was only available for e-reader devices.

After the first couple of chapters it didn’t seem that promising, but I pressed on to see if it would improve. In the end I put it down around the halfway point. It wasn’t due to the quality of the story – the reason I had to stop reading was that the number of typos, grammatical mistakes and punctuation errors was so distracting that I could no longer focus on what was happening in the story. I was amazed at this sloppy writing, and thought that I couldn’t be the only person to notice – we’re not talking about an occasional misplaced apostrophe, this was rampant. Scanning the Amazon reviews, I saw only a couple of comments about the editing amongst hundreds of four and five star reviews. I started wondering if people generally thought this was acceptable because it’s an e-book, but then I remembered a series from a well-established author and a major publishing house that started to drive me crazy because of the mistakes in printed versions.

It’s all around us, too – just look at your local newspaper’s headlines and I bet you’ll find something, and prepare to have a good laugh if you read the real estate listings! Regardless of whether these things bother me personally, I’m interested in whether it’s a sign that people in general just don't care so much any more. Is it more important to get the latest information as quickly as possible on the device that’s most convenient? I think the general population would say for some types of information, like urgent news, yes. Could acceptance elsewhere be an evolution of language? I guess that part will only be revealed through time.

And how does this all relate back to learning? Over my years in the learning profession I’ve really come to appreciate the input of a good editor, and it's something we like to factor into every project at Limestone. No matter how good the instructional designers are, the value of fresh eyes on course materials, a report or other words we use is that they see what you have missed with being so absorbed in the content. The editor is often unfamiliar with the subject matter as well, so they can provide useful feedback on the clarity of communication.

Timelines are always tight, though, and the day or two it takes to turn around the edit could be really valuable elsewhere, or mean an earlier delivery. When people seem to have so much tolerance for a lack of editing, could we cut it?

Talking to colleagues and associates has affirmed my answer of no. Learning materials do need to be held to a higher standard. People will excuse the occasional typo, but ongoing errors reflect badly on the content itself, leading people to think it’s of poor quality and may not be accurate. Also, mistakes can lead to confusion and misinterpretation, which does not support a positive learning experience! There are places where it’s okay to relax standards, but when you really need to get the message across and the face time with your audience is limited – whether onscreen or in a classroom – editing your material thoroughly is worth the effort. 

In writing this post I decided to take a look back at the page for that e-book on Amazon. I see that an announcement was made a couple of weeks ago that the book is “NOW PROFESSIONALLY EDITED”. Maybe there’s hope for editing yet!

Update on 2011-11-29 19:20 by Paula

Thanks for your thoughts Jane.  As professional writers of any sort, we spend a lot of our valuable time putting down thoughts and ideas for others to read. It's a challenging balance to be both efficient but still take the time to do the editing that our work deserves. Does our credibility suffer when we distract our readers with grammar and punctuation errors?  I think so.

Promote Openness and Transparency

#7 of 9 in our weekly succession planning blog post series:

Our guest blogger, Paul Riley is life-long learner of Organizational Leadership and Change who applies systems thinking and community development principles to help people work more effectively together within the complex human systems we create.

This week’s blog post focuses on the fifth principle of the 7 principles of successful Succession Planning - #5: Promote Openness and Transparency. Many organizations view succession planning as a task for senior managers. As a result mid-level managers, supervisors and front-line staff don’t play an active role in the process. This can contribute to a perception among employees that there’s a lack of opportunity for advancement within the organization because they’re not involved in important conversations about the organization’s future and the roles they might play to support the company’s vision. Employees often become discouraged by the perceived lack of opportunity and become complacent, and some give up on their career aspirations altogether. This significantly impacts motivation, engagement and commitment to the organization. As a result the most talented employees typically decide to leave the company to pursue opportunities for growth and advancement elsewhere. By the time you get to the exit interview, it’s too late to persuade a “high-potential” employee to stay.

Senior managers often fear that employees will become discouraged if they’re not selected as a succession candidate. But the opposite is actually true. Employees who are passed over for a promotion typically become more engaged and motivated when they understand why they were not selected. Employees who are overlooked most likely want to be considered too, but they need to know what opportunities are available to them and understand what they need to do to get there. Creating open and transparent succession planning processes and systems will help employees figure out what they need to do to move to the next level.

I’ve also worked with senior managers who think that succession planning is not practical, because there simply aren’t any positions expecting to become vacant in the short- or mid- term. They often believe that employees will want to leave if they realize that there’s nowhere for them to go in the organization. But this logic is flawed for two reasons. First, you never know when somebody might unexpectedly leave, so you should always be planning for somebody in the organization to take over key positions or responsibilities should the need arise. Second, we’ve learned that when we focus on developing people, they become more committed to the organization. It’s scary for many managers to think that they’re preparing people to leave the organization, but that’s essentially what it takes to convince people to stay: show them that they are valued by giving them the tools and skills they need to advance in their careers, even if that means that they might take their knowledge and skills elsewhere. It’s counterintuitive, and it works.

Organizations that don’t communicate openly about their succession plans often find that employees aren’t motivated to develop themselves, because they don’t see “what’s in it for them,” preferring work-life-balance to the challenges they see their immediate supervisors dealing with every day. An open process promotes continual development of leadership potential in the rank and file. It also encourages staff to take ownership of their own professional growth, because they’re more aware of organizational expectations and what it takes to advance. Companies often benefit from “cascading development” as well, because employees share the knowledge and expertise that they acquire from development activities.

As I discussed in Part 3, succession planning programs must align with the organization’s strategy. It’s difficult to imagine a company that sets strategic objectives but neglects to communicate the strategic plan with its employees. Succession planning requires open and transparent communication to be effective. Organizations can promote openness and transparency by communicating about succession planning processes, defining clear career paths, and offering greater performance feedback. In other words, it must become integrated into performance management and talent management processes and systems.

Many organizations use web-based solutions to promote openness and transparency, because it allows employees to have greater access to information about opportunities within the organization while providing tools for knowledge management, employee development, and performance support. Web-based applications that include social media tools such as wikis, blogs, discussion boards, and chat rooms, can also help with managing projects more effectively by allowing employees to share their knowledge and expertise across the organization. Using cross-organizational project teams can help managers identify knowledge, skills, and talents that might otherwise be overlooked. But if web-based solutions are not within your organization’s budget, conversations with employees about their career goals and aspirations during the performance review cycle is a great place to start.

Want to know more about the Seven Principles of Succession Planning? Stay tuned for Part 8 of this series, when I discuss the sixth principle – Develop Simple, Flexible, and Decentralized Processes and Tools.

Also, be sure to check out our other Succession Planning blog posts in this series:

What’s so important about Succession Planning? 

The 7 principles for successful Succession Planning

Aligning Succession Planning programs with the organization’s strategy

Combine Succession Planning and Leadership Development

Include all levels of the organization

Provide opportunities for practice, feedback, and reflection

Free September webinars

It's hard to believe that summer is almost over. With September approaching, I thought I'd post some free webinars that are being offered next month.  Invest some time in keeping yourself up to date with the latest industry information. I've signed up for a number of the webinars so hope to "see" you online.

Thursday, September 1, 10am – 11am PST: Fostering Learning Beyond the Classroom

Karie Willyerd, co-author of The 2020 Workplace and former CLO at Sun Microsystems will explore how you can keep your training and development initiative up to pace with the rapidly evolving dynamics of how, when and where employees acquire knowledge.

Wednesday, September 7, 10am – 11am PST: How to Select an LMS for your Small/Medium Business

Learning management systems (LMS) are playing an increasingly important role in workplace learning and development. These systems provide learners with access to content and provide managers with the ability to track who knows what. Due to high costs and technological infrastructure requirements, large organizations have traditionally been the first to adopt learning management systems. Price and technological barriers are now dropping, making it easy for small- and medium-sized businesses to obtain an LMS.

Thursday, September 8, 10am – 11am: Web 3.0 and the Transformation of Learning

This webinar takes a look at the next evolution of the Web and what it means for the learning function. The differences between high- and low-performing organizations in terms of how they approach these new technologies will be highlighted.

Thursday, September 8, 10am – 11am: From Rapid Authoring to Rapid Reuse – Why Building Mobile Learning Requires a Scalable Content Strategy

The rapid rise of mobile learning has created a resurgence of interest in reusable content models. Nuggets of content, relevant to the individual learner, that are re-assembled and delivered on-demand and to any device. Learn how open, XML-based single-source learning content management solutions are providing a critical advantage an organization’s mobile strategy in terms of time-to-market, product innovation and efficient content development. Real-time demonstrations will be presented that leverage existing content to create flexible iPad and smart phone applications and will show you how easy it is to customize mobile content for different learners and customers.

Wednesday, September 14, 10am-11am PST: The Truth about Social Learning

"Social learning" and "informal learning" are among the training industry's hottest phrases these days. But there's so much confusion over what they mean, and what they mean to those of us in the business. Join Jan Bozarth to look at real examples of social and informal learning as it happens in workplaces all the time, every day. She’ll also generate some ideas for locating, supporting and facilitating social learning opportunities toward the greater goal of enhancing organizational performance.

Tuesday, September 20, 10am – 11am PST: Building a Business Case for Performance and Learning

Join Stacey Harris, VP of Research for Brandon Hall Group as she shares insights on how to create and deliver a business case that resonates, no matter the size or market of your organization. In this presentation, Harris will offer guidance and practical examples on creating a business case for investing in a more effective approach to performance management and employee development. Key take-aways include:

• The business leaders perspective
• Insights on the value of connecting performance management and employee development
• Elements in creating and delivering an effective business case for companies of every size
• Illustrations of business cases that made an impact

Tuesday, September 20, 10am – 11am PST: How to Add “Gamification” to Your eLearning Design

Do you know how Gamification can boost learning effectiveness?  Gamification is the application of theories in gaming, its attendant rewards and its motivational impact. It has caught the attention of both learning designers and elearning developers because gamification presents new opportunities to raise the learner's engagement and learning applications. But how to make it a practical enhancement to the elearning design is a mystery. In this webinar, Ray Jimenez will present case studies on how to apply gamification to enhance your eLearning projects.

Thursday, September 22, 10am – 11am PST: Navigating the Social Learning Roadmap

With more companies and organizations recognizing the value of social learning, we are fast on our way to a major shift in learning. The emergence of social media has enabled us to capture what we do quite naturally, LEARN.During this webinar, you will:

• Discover the career implications of a social learning culture

• Evaluate the value of a social learning strategy within their organization.

• Navigate steps to creating a social learning culture

• Forecast obstacles in the organizational culture that block social learning

• Fuel engagement within the framework of a social learning culture.

Tuesday, September 27, 10am-11am PST: How to Measure Informal and Social Learning Investments

Informal learning measurement (social networks, performance support, coaching) is on the rise. It is important to think about measuring this investment and comparing it against formal programs to determine its mix and place. Questions such as what, when and how to measure informal learning are challenges faced by practitioners using informal learning. This webinar will discuss informal learning capabilities, how to measure them and what resources are available to make measurement practical.

Thursday, September 29, 10am – 11am PST: Creating eLearning Stories and Exercises with Articulate Storyline®

There are two daunting tasks when using stories and exercises in eLearning: creating a good design, and authoring the software. Instead of focusing the quality of the lessons into engaging learning, designers and developers spend more time in the production work. This slows down the delivery and increases the cost. This clinic will present proven ways in using stories and exercises to engage learners as well as step by step methods to develop events, characters, choices and consequences and to quickly convert them into eLearning by using Articulate's new software, Storyline®