Performance Support …#4 of the top 5 articles of 2013

Rounding up our list of the top five Performance Support articles in 2013, here’s article #4… 

The Round-Up: #4

eLearning Guild Research: Mobile Learning for Supporting Workers' Performance By: Patti Shank May 16, 2013

Interestingly, none of the performance support articles we’ve already posted mention the role of mobile learning in augmenting performance support; this article is a great introduction to the concept. Patti Shank, internationally recognized information and instructional designer and the Director of Research at The eLearning Guild, opens with a great example for performance support “when you don’t remember how to change the toner on your printer and the printer display window shows you how to do it, that’s performance support.”

Shank stresses how the use of mobile technology in performance support is a natural next step. The majority of us have smartphones or tablets and have them on our person most of the time anyway, so it makes sense to integrate mobile performance support. She lists examples of what it could take the form of: PDFs, audio, video, chat apps, SMS (text messages), mobile webpages, and native applications. Shank draws on other examples from case studies with Sonic and the International Red Cross that put the concept into real-life context. You can see more here:

Casebourne, Imogen. How Mobile Learning Is Done: Nine Case Studies from Around the World. The eLearning Guild. 4 April 2013.

Has your organization or your clients adopted mobile learning for performance support? We’d love to hear your thoughts on how performance has improved.

Stay tuned for one more upcoming blog post for the remaining top five performance support article of 2013 … and be sure to check out the first three articles of five in this series:

• Performance Support…The Low Down
• Performance Support…#2 of the top 5 articles of 2013
• Performance Support…#3 of the top 5 articles of 2013

Performance Support …#3 of the top 5 articles of 2013

Rounding up our list of the top five Performance Support articles in 2013, here’s article #3

The Round-Up: #3

Survive and Thrive with Performance Support by Conrad Gottfredson & Bob Mosher, June 2013

This is a short but informative article published by the Training Industry Quarterly. It is written by Conrad Gottfredson and Bob Mosher, another Bona Fide voice in performance support from Ontuitive. The article’s focus is on developing a performance support infrastructure that allows the organization to move, adapt, and flex in response to inevitable change.

The workforce are seen as “dynamic learners” that contribute to an organization’s agility. Developing and implementing a performance support infrastructure gives these dynamic learners instant access to what they need in order to perform competently. The main focus of the article is on integrating the infrastructure according to the workflow process in question and designing according to two principles, proximity and immediacy. Performance support is efficient when it is accessed within 2 clicks and 10 seconds.

Do you have a performance support infrastructure in place? What are its strengths?

Stay tuned for more upcoming blog posts for the remaining top five performance support articles of 2013 … and be sure to check out the first two articles of five in this series:

• Performance Support…The Low Down
• Performance Support…#2 of the top 5 articles of 2013

Performance Support …#2 of the top 5 articles of 2013

In the last performance support blog post I talked about the importance of providing the right information and the right amount of information at the right time to help increase productivity and reduce time off the job spent looking for answers. I also included the first of our top five articles of 2013 on performance support. So here's article #2: 

The Round-Up: #2

Now's the Time for Performance Support By: Conrad Gottfredson, April 26, 2013

Gottfredson, Chief Learning Strategist of Ontuitive, a world-leader in performance support, is an extremely credible voice in the performance support arena and has produced a wealth of very informative and insightful articles in 2013.

Gottfredson based this article on Gloria Gerry’s book “Electronic Performance Support Systems” that she wrote in 1991. The content in this book has become extremely relevant again and the desired approaches more achievable, due to the existing and emerging technologies available now.  Gottfredson devised six attributes or principles of an effective performance support solution from Gerry’s definition of the same term where performance support is an: “Orchestrated set of technology-enabled services that provide on-demand access to integrated information, guidance, advice, assistance, training and tools to enable high-level job performance with a minimum of support from other people”.  The Performance Support Pyramid methodology is intertwined throughout these attributes and provides a hierarchy for “anticipating the evolving information requirements of a performer”.

Gottfredson also includes a graphic that visualizes learning transfer after a training event. This subsequently shows how performance support steps in when that transfer does not occur due to lack of use or forgetting. Not implementing a performance support system is like sending someone into a forest without giving them a map. Overall, this is an excellent study on performance support that provides great insight and advice on how an effective strategy encourages self-supported, high-performing, independent and productive workers with minimum disruption to other people in the organization.

Do you have any favourite performance support articles or research? We’d love for you to share them with us.

 Stay tuned for more upcoming blog posts for the remaining top five performance support articles of 2013 … and be sure to check out the first article of five in this series:

• Performance Support…The Low Down

Performance Support...The Low Down

Let me read you your rights: Performance support is about providing the right information, the right amount of information and at the right time.  It’s not a new concept; it is a relatively new and trend worthy approach to designing learning experiences. Performance support, or just in time learning, supports the 70:20:10 model (more about this model in a later blog post). This idea, researched at the Center for Creative Leadership, proposes that 70% of your learning happens on the job.

Think back over your career. Have you ever had to stop what you were doing to find an answer to a question, so that you could move forward with a task? Think about how it feels when you are in the zone and then it’s disrupted. Is it easy or hard to get back into your workflow? Have you ever attended a systems training course and subsequently forgot everything you learned because you didn’t use it right away?

An appropriately designed performance support strategy can help to increase productivity and reduce time off the job spent looking for answers. It should be seamless and obvious. You don’t stop and think about it. It could be a printed quick reference sheet, a help system embedded in a software program, an online product comparison, online sales tips, to name but a few.

As to be expected, there's a wealth of information about performance support on the web. We looked at existing credible sources and found what we think are some of the best 2013 articles that provide hands on tips and information to help  design and implement the best possible performance support strategy for your organization. We've included the first of our five top articles of 2013 on performance support below. Stay tuned for upcoming blog posts on the remaining top four performance support articles of 2013.

The Round-Up: #1

16 Performance Support Tips, Strategies, and Tactics By: Jennifer Neibert, March 27, 2013

 Learning Solutions Magazine published some of the best articles on performance support in 2013. This is a compiled list of tips and tricks from the presenters at the eLearning Guild’s Online Forum, “Learning at the Moment of Need: Connecting Learning to Performance," on April 11th and 12th, 2013.

It gives you a good sense of what performance support is all about and some expert bite-sized advice on how to approach your design strategy. The article questions the traditional approach to training and eLearning in today’s world where employees are expected to do more, with less time and less resources. Some of the advice includes focusing on the point of need, ensuring information is as easy to access as possible, making content short and concise and design for performance first, knowledge second.

If you attended the online forum in April, We'd love to hear what you liked, learned and remembered.

Free T&D webinars for December

How quickly we forget what cold weather is like! Jack Frost has made a sudden appearance and we’re digging out our winter woollies. Why not cuddle up with a hot chocolate and a free webinar or two? We hope these December events will inspire and motivate you.

Tuesday, December 3, 2013, 10AM – 11AM PST: Getting Unstuck: Using Leadership Paradox to Execute with Confidence

Most of the issues that keep us up at night or prevent organizations from being successful are not problems that can be solved. Rather they are paradoxes that need to be managed. Unfortunately, most of us never learned to distinguish the two…or the methods to address the paradoxes.

This program helps people learn the three questions that make the distinction and provides trainers with opportunities to learn a new set of tools, language, and skills that can become part of their toolkit to help individuals and organizations address longstanding obstacles to success—so they can become more resilient and successful over time.

Tuesday, December 3, 2013, 11AM – 12PM PST: 5 Tips for Turning Gamification Theory into Practice (Free for ASTD members)

You’ve heard all about gamification for learning, but how do you take the elements of gamification and make them a reality within your organization? This webinar, based on Karl Kapp’s newest book, The Gamification of Learning and Instruction Fieldbook: Theory into Practice, provides answers for turning your ideas into reality. The webinar will cover five practical elements for gamification and a step-by-step approach for implementing gamification concepts. This discussion will include several examples, lots of tips, a couple of tricks, and a worksheet or two to help learning professionals put the ideas into practice and gamify their content.

Wednesday, December 4, 2013, 11AM – 12PM PST: Managing a Virtual Workforce (Free for ASTD members)

Do you or your employees work outside of a traditional office? This might mean working from home on occasional mornings or being completely based at your local coffee shop. Perhaps you supervise sales staff in a large geographic area or are responsible for a team of global technology professionals. Mobile workforces are a growing and permanent trend, and management strategies need to keep pace.

This webcast will provide the basics of managing your mobile workforce—from supervisory tools to leadership techniques. You will be presented with the bedrock of a successful virtual work arrangement, including the four questions to ask yourself before deciding if a virtual work arrangement is right for your job position. Discover how to better engage employees working offsite and how to reinforce your corporate culture. Finally, learn how to optimize technology to coach and counsel employees working in the virtual cloud.

Thursday, December 5, 2013, 10AM – 11AM PST: Leaving ADDIE Behind – A Conversation with Michael Allen

Analysis, design, development, implementation, and evaluation (ADDIE) are all important steps in the design of effective eLearning applications or any learning program. While there have been many adaptations of ADDIE, many of them were made before we had today's tools, challenges, and opportunities. Join Dr. Michael Allen for a candid conversation with Richard Sites as they casually discuss what’s needed and possible today leveraging Agile to improve development efficiencies and effectiveness—resulting in the best learning experiences possible.

Thursday, December 5, 2013, 10AM – 11PM PST: 5 Reasons Why You Can't Ignore Gamification (Free for ASTD members)

Gamification is more than newfangled training. It is touted as the next form of work-based social media, in which people interact and socialize around a common bond of knowledge, competitive strategy, and fun. Elements of game play engage employees with just about any topic: improving operations, cutting logistics costs, and challenging employees to understand how their roles contribute to enterprise success. Many of the world’s largest brands are deploying gamification, including Coke, AOL, Nissan, Nike, and Viacom, and as more studies become available, the advantages to gaming in the workplace will become widespread. One primary lever promoting gamification is that employee satisfaction, which is closely related to employee retention, can no longer be achieved through financial compensation alone. The challenge now is to understand why gamification is so effective and how to introduce it seamlessly into an organization.

Thursday, December 5, 2013, 10:00AM – 11:00AM PST: Mobile Learning in Practice

Organizations taking their first steps into mobile learning can easily become overwhelmed by the multitude of considerations that exist: multi-device learning, responsive design, delivery platforms, tablets, smart phones, app stores, and much more. Without the benefit of practical examples and proven experience, it can be difficult to see how different approaches will work in practice, or to decide what will work best for your organization or sector. This webinar looks at the following:

•  Just-in-time learning
• Games-based learning
• Multi-device eLearning courses
• On-the-job support and training

Tuesday, December 10, 2013, 10AM – 11AM PST: Virtual Presentations That Work: Breakthrough to Engage Clients and Staff

It’s one thing to be clear, concise, and in control of your message when you’re speaking to a group of people in a live conference room setting. It’s an entirely different thing to keep audience members attentive and engaged when presenting virtually. It’s not just learning how to run the meeting software. That’s the easy part. The real issues are getting people to want to participate and communicating well using the technology so that what you say is actually heard and understood. In this practical session, delivered virtually, you’ll explore the skills and techniques it takes to communicate effectively in virtual settings no matter whether you’re conducting meetings, presentations, product demos, or video conferences.

Tuesday, December 10, 2013, 12PM – 1PM PST: Capitalize on the Power of Employee Engagement in Government/Leveraging the Power of Employee Engagement (Free for ASTD members)

This is not an easy time to be working in the public sector. Heated budget battles and rhetoric about the size, function, scope, and effectiveness of government have generated criticism not just of government but also of the public servants who deliver government services. Across the country, government agencies and their employees are being denigrated and stigmatized. One proven response to maintaining effectiveness in this difficult environment is to improve the level of employee engagement. Research has clearly and convincingly shown that improving employee engagement will drive higher levels of organizational performance, reduce turnover, and yield other important workforce benefits. This session will focus on empirically proven approaches to improve employee engagement in government agencies.

Wednesday, December 11, 2013, 10:00AM – 11:00AM PST: Leveraging Technology for Social Learning

Social media has become a fixture in many of our lives, whether it be Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or any other of the growing list of social technology platforms. Using technology to facilitate the natural connections and interactions between learners, instructors, and content is becoming the norm. The key is to recognize the difference between social media and social learning, and to know what social media is and isn’t. Webinar topics include:

• The evolution of learning
• The difference between social learning and social media
• Current trends in social learning technology
• The possibilities of social and mobile
• Examples of social learning environments

Wednesday, December 11, 2013, 11AM – 12PM PST: 3 Ways to Increase the Enrollment, Engagement, and Effectiveness of Your Training through the Power of Story

As trainers, we focus extensively on the design and development of our training content. Yet sometimes, even if we follow instructional design principles to the letter, our content doesn't engage, wow, or connect with the audience. What’s the missing ingredient? Join this webinar with author and training expert Pam Slim to discover how powerful, relevant, and engaging stories can humanize and accelerate the learning experience. Learn:

• How to create compelling copy that boosts class sign-ups
• Three story frameworks for simplifying your work and electrifying your audience
• How to weave a story thread through your entire training experience

Wednesday, December 11, 2013, 11AM – 12PM PST: Leveraging Mobile Learning for Sales Enablement (Free for ASTD members)

Join us for an exploration of how mobile devices can be leveraged to augment and support sales professionals, since they are often the most mobile team members who require training and performance support. New instructional design patterns for creating superior sales tools, job aids, and learning experiences for tablets, smartphones, and SMS-enabled feature phones will be explored in this how-to-focused webinar featuring content from the upcoming ASTD Infoline of the same title.

Thursday, December 12, 2013, 10AM – 11AM PST: Crowdsourcing: The End of Administrative Onboarding

The days of administrative onboarding are numbered. Hiring priorities continue to evolve, and it’s become increasingly apparent that traditional onboarding—wherein new hire orientation is often limited to a list of HR to-dos—isn’t meeting today’s talent needs. Leaders of high-performing organizations are actively looking for ways to combat new hire turnover and foster new levels of employee engagement—and they’re overhauling onboarding to do it. But success in onboarding is not guaranteed. In order to achieve real and lasting results, there are important questions that need answers—not the least of which is, “Where to begin?” This webinar discusses:

• Understanding the talent trends driving the end of administrative onboarding
• Case studies on the real business impact of improved onboarding processes
• Tips for leveraging crowdsourcing techniques to breathe new life into traditional onboarding practices

Thursday, December 12, 2013, 10AM – 11AM PST: Push Learners to the Edge with Story-Driven Games

How do you get the learner involved in the discovery of ideas? How do you ensure the learner is paying attention? PUSH THE LEARNERS TO THE EDGE. It may sound unorthodox, but this is how people learn best—being on edge, rushing to get things done, stretching their capacity to overcome an obstacle. These are traits of an active learner. The challenge is how to structure a learning environment so that it constantly pushes learners to the edge. In this session, you’ll see demos of story-driven games, and learn:

• The basic rules that guide the design of high-pressure and high-discovery learning games
• How to use stories to super-charge the tension and escalation of the learner’s discovery experience
• How to pitch the learner into a game so that content is learned while playing it
• How to add surprises, intrigue, tension, twists, curiosity, and passion in the learner to play the game      

Thursday, December 12, 2013, 10AM – 11AM PST: You Can't Lead If You Can't Communicate: Simple Techniques to Get Your Message Across (Free for ASTD members)

Mike Figliuolo is a recognized presenter and author on developing leadership and communication skills in the workplace. He is an Honor Graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point and he served as an armor officer in the U.S. Army. Mike has held positions as a consultant with McKinsey & Company and as an executive at Capital One Financial and Scotts Miracle-Gro. He is the founder and managing director of thoughtLEADERS, LLC—a leadership development training firm that focuses on real, practical, and applicable knowledge. His book One Piece of Paper: The Simple Approach to Powerful, Personal Leadership is designed to help leaders define who they are and what their personal leadership philosophy is. Mike is specifically known for his programs that take participants beyond theory to hands-on application for immediate results.

Friday, December 13, 2013, 11AM – 12PM PST: State of the Industry, 2013 (Free for ASTD members)

Laurie Miller, Director of Research Services at ASTD, and David Frankel, Research Specialist, will discuss benchmarking data from ASTD BEST Awards Winners, Fortune magazine's list of Global 500 (G500) companies, and other organizations from 2004 to the present. ASTD estimates that US organizations spent $1,195 per employee on learning and development in 2012. The content from this webcast is drawn from ASTD's 2013 State of the Industry report, which is sponsored by Skillsoft and CARA.

Monday, December 16, 2013, 11AM – 12PM PST: BEST Webcast Series: University Health System: How to Create and Sustain Buzz in Your Learning (Free for ASTD members)

Building a strong, compelling brand for the learning and development department is essential in today’s workplace. With competing and escalating demands on time and talent, L&D must craft and implement a strategy to demonstrate its value. Learn how University Health System uses executive support, marketing communication, ROI, awards and recognition, partnerships, and more to create and sustain learning. Three things participants will take away:

•  Examples of ways to create and sustain buzz
• Ten benefits to submitting awards applications
• The essence of a branding strategy for your learning development

Tuesday, December 17, 2013, 9AM – 10AM PST: Managing the Matrix: Hilton's Journey of Launching their School of Sales (Free for ASTD members)

When Joe Anzalone, director of the school of sales at Hilton Worldwide, was tasked with launching a common global sales learning function in the spring of 2012, he was greeted with a series of obstacles—decentralized decision making, nine different sales training programs already in use, competing leadership priorities and agendas, and a legacy of skepticism about previous US and corporate-based learning solutions. Join Joe as he walks you through his experiences dealing with these daunting challenges, how he has been able to overcome them, and what the future holds for Hilton’s global school of sales as the journey continues.

Wednesday, December 18, 2013, 10AM – 11AM PST: Research Spotlight: Learning Strategies and Mobile Learning

This installment of Brandon Hall Group Research Spotlight webinars walks through BHG’s latest research on mobile learning and shares some preliminary data from the recently closed Learning and Development benchmarking survey. This webinar will include:

• Statistics on the maturity of mobile learning
• Effectiveness ratings for various types of mobile learning
• Research into the development of learning strategies
• Research into learning and development budgets
• Highlights of award-winning case studies from the 2013 Brandon Hall Group Excellence Awards

Wednesday, December 18, 2013, 10AM – 11AM PST: eLearning Authoring Tools: What’s Important?

What asynchronous eLearning authoring tools do individuals and organizations use and want, and why? What are the most desired features in asynchronous eLearning authoring tools at the macro and micro levels? These are the two overarching questions addressed in The eLearning Guild’s new survey-based research report, eLearning Authoring Tools 2013: What We’re Using, What We Want. In this webinar, you will learn:

• About the most important and most desired eLearning authoring tools
• About the most important features of these authoring tools
• What our panel of experts thinks of the survey results

Leadership, Employee Collaboration and Grooming the Leaders of Tomorrow

An email came across my desk today titled..."Did you miss the best HR webinars of 2013?". Intrigued, I opened the email and read that SilkRoad is offering access to three past online events - free webinar recordings from top business writers as well as a free chapter of each author's latest book. The webinar titles look particularily interesting:

• Creativeship: Why Leadership is SO Yesterday! by Bob Kelleher
• The Role of HR in Employee Collaboration by Jacob Morgan
• Manager 3.0: Grooming Tomorrow's Millenial Leaders Today by Brad Karsh

If you're interested in checking any or all of them out, click here to register (for free) and access the recordings and chapters. 

I'd be really interested to know what you think of them so drop me a line and let me know.

Free T&D Webinars for November

With autumn off to a spooky start, and rainy days ahead, it’s a great time to stay indoors, fortify yourself with a cup of hot chocolate, and enjoy the warm glow of a fire. Or is that the warm glow of the Internet? There’s a wonderful selection of free webinars being offered this month. We hope they will inspire and motivate you.

Friday, November 1, 2013, 11AM – 12PM PST: ASTD Best Webcast Series: Migros Retail Academy: Success Formula for Results (Free for ASTD members)

2013 BEST winner, the Migros Retail Academy, had a mountain of challenges to overcome in developing its workforce. Chief among the challenges was the lack of a formalized education program in Turkey to prepare people for a career in retail. The company needed to start from square one—and make sure that the training delivered to employees aligned with business goals and the needs of multiple stakeholders. This session will share insights and tips about how Migros tackled this big challenge, including:

•  How to establish a successful corporate academy
• The importance of understanding business needs and being aligned across lines of business
• Managing different generations in the workforce

Tuesday, November 5, 2013, 10AM – 11AM PST: Are Your Trainers Great Facilitators? Creating the Dynamic Experience with Facilitative Training Skills

Even experienced trainers sometimes find themselves standing before groups whose dynamics are all over the board. Everyone has an opinion, varying learning styles must be taken into account, and you’ve got to delineate difficult questions being thrown at you at warp speed. How do trainers handle these challenges in an effective, enthusiastic manner? Wouldn’t it be great to have the tools to regain control of the room every time? Join Certified Master Facilitator Michael Wilkinson as he introduces a training approach you can use right away— the facilitative approach. Learn about cutting-edge tools designed to make sessions more engaging, and proven techniques to transform the way audiences receive and apply your training material.

Tuesday, November 5, 2013, 10PM – 11PM PST: Teaching People to Learn (Free for ASTD members) 

Teams are the way we get work done. They are critical to innovation, growth, and risk management in our organizations. But teams are vulnerable to dysfunction from poorly aligned priorities, interpersonal tensions, and unproductive conflict. So why do we throw people together and hope for the best? In this interactive session, you will hear about a revolutionary new approach to teaching employees to team. By starting teams off on the right foot, you can accelerate productivity and reduce the impact of inevitable challenges.

Wednesday, November 6, 2013, 7AM – 8AM PST: Intercultural Communication: Leaping over Boundaries (Free for ASTD members)

As organizations become more global, they come across more challenges in intercultural communication. Unfortunately, a lack of intercultural communication skills sometimes deters collaboration amongst individuals from different religious, social, ethnic, and educational backgrounds. In this webcast, you will hear how intercultural communication skills training can be applied to people from different countries and cultures. You will learn how to act, communicate, and change your paradigm for synergistic cooperation.

Wednesday, November 6, 2013, 10AM – 11AM PST: Learn How to Avoid "Crisis of Emptiness" in eLearning

Part of eLearning’s challenge is to recapture the lost warmth and interpersonal relationships many of us experience in face-to-face interactions. The common complaint from eLearners is that intimacy, empathy, helpfulness, and support are absent. This creates a disconcerting experience that leads to delays and resistance from learners. In this session you will learn practical and useful best practices to ensure the elevation of your eLearning design and delivery from sheer loneliness and apathy to curiosity, engagement, and better learning.

Thursday, November 7, 2013, 8AM – 1PM PST: Shifting the Performance Curve: A Human Capital Community Virtual Summit (Free for ASTD members) 

In these challenging economic times, no one can afford to let profit slip away. And yet, many organizational leaders do not realize that they can find the secrets to high profit (and higher performance) by looking inside their own organizations. But how can leaders ensure that they know how to tap into the talent and secrets of their star performers, and then implement these insights throughout the entire organization? During this half-day event, Paul Elliott and Al Folsom of Exemplary Performance will provide their innovative and cost-effective path to helping organizations translate employee performance improvement into measurable business results.

Thursday, November 7, 2013, 10AM – 11AM PST: De-Mystifying the LMS Selection Process

The LMS marketplace continues to shift and evolve as vendors consolidate and new technology features become available. Deciding to invest in a learning management system isn’t even half the battle. Once they walk through that door, companies are faced with a mind-numbing array of choices. Where do they start? Which system is right? How do you know? Attend this webinar and learn concrete steps and strategies to make the journey to LMS selection far simpler.

Thursday, November 7, 2013, 1PM – 2PM PST Rescheduled for Friday, November 8, 2013, 10AM - 11AM: The Future of Learning

Is there anything that isn't changing? Industries, organizations, jobs, work, and even peoples' expectations are shifting. So it's only to be expected that learning will also adapt. This webinar will explore a broad range of topics such as:

• Social learning and how it will continue to evolve to meet new social technologies
• What the Kahn Academy could mean for corporate learning
• The role of accreditation in providing "trophies" to the next generation of learning
• Eight strategies for accelerating development of new employees as experienced employees leave the workplace
• Augmented reality and the implication for just-in-time learning

And in the spirit of social learning, YOU are the content.  Bring your ideas to the table to collaborate on understanding the future of learning.

Friday, November  8, 2013, 11AM – 12PM PST: Developing Global Talent at UPS (Free for ASTD members) 

Learn how a new type of executive training program was deployed in May 2012 to be delivered in conjunction with UPS’s logistics coordination role at the 2012 London Olympic Games. The program objectives were to drive profit and return-on-investment capital (ROIC) by building the knowledge, skills, abilities, and competencies of UPS’s international country managers.

Tuesday, November 12, 2013, 9AM – 10AM PST: From Functional Expert to Organizational Leader: Making a Successful Transition (Free for ASTD members) 

Making the shift from technical or functional expert to a broader organizational leader is often not easy. It is a road paved with pitfalls, stalls, and few guideposts. In today’s changing and competitive business environment, making this shift is ever more critical; companies and organizations need such capability, and individuals need to grow. By looking at what it takes to make the shift and where to focus, we can map out the path and accelerate the process.

Tuesday, November 12, 2013, 10AM – 11AM PST: Creating Culture That Rocks

This interactive session is effectively designed to highlight best practices to create, maintain, enhance, or even revolutionize a company’s culture in all areas of the business. Jim Knight, former Hard Rock Training executive and more recently founder of Knight Speaker, will discuss key strategies to transform any organization’s culture. Key concepts will include: a Definition of Culture (finally!), Hiring "Rock Stars," Brand Differentiation, Employee Engagement, Virtuous versus Vicious Circles, and Retention Strategies. The time allotted is filled with visual slides, out-of-the-box thinking, quotes, industry statistics, and case studies…all told through the spirit of Rock ‘n’ Roll. If you’re a fan of unpredictability and thinking about things differently, come hear what all the noise is about.

Wednesday, November 13, 2013, 10AM – 11AM PST: Best of DemoFest 2013: Award-winning eLearning in Action

Each year at DevLearn, dozens of conference participants show off their latest and greatest eLearning projects at eLearning DemoFest, offering their fellow attendees the opportunity to see a wide variety of solutions to common eLearning challenges, and sharing information about the tools, technologies, and processes used to build them. Meet several of this year’s winners in this complimentary Best of DemoFest. Join us and see their award-winning solutions in many of the following categories including Acedemic, Augmented Reality, Blended Learning, Business Processes, eBooks, Game-based, Immersive/Simulation, Mobile, Onboarding/Employee Orientation, Performance Support, Sales Training, Soft Skills, Software Systems, Social Media or Online Communities and Virtual Classroom.

Wednesday, November 13, 2013, 10AM – 11AM PST: Enabling Healthcare Learning with Technology

Ninety percent of healthcare organizations are having difficulties finding skilled workers; 33 percent say the lack of skilled workers impacts their ability to comply with external quality standards and regulations. How can we address these issues through greater development opportunities and better talent practices? Attend this webinar to learn key findings from Brandon Hall Group’s new research on the skills gap in healthcare organizations. In addition we’ll have award-winning case studies and insights from healthcare industry experts.

Tuesday, November 14, 2013, 10AM – 11AM PST: Build Greater Acceptance and Increase Adoption of Training through Coaching

The training industry ebbs and flows in terms of its acceptance. We use teaching aids, eLearning systems, etc.—but what if management supported our training by assisting in the coaching process? Training would be more accepted and employee development would escalate. This webinar will teach specific strategies for using coaching to gain greater acceptance and understanding of your training programs.

Tuesday, November 19, 2013, 8AM – 9AM PST: Talent as a Business Risk 

Organizations regularly assess their financials, information technology, and operation risks. However, concerns around talent—or human capital—tend to receive little attention. Join Brandon Hall Group and KPMG as they share research findings from 1,200 organizations across 54 countries on talent risk. This research comprehensively sets out the degree to which businesses are concerned about various types of talent risks, and the extent to which they are managing these concerns. Event topics include:

•  A Global Talent Risk Profile
• Top 10 Talent Risks
• A Talent Risk Disconnect: Business Leaders versus HR
• A case study from a global organization addressing its talent risks

Tuesday, November 19, 2013, 10AM – 11AM PST: “DUDE, WHAT’S MY JOB?” Developing and Training Millennials in Today’s Global Workforce 

Millennials are infiltrating the workforce, while managers and older generations are scrambling to understand and work with this fascinating group. The phrase “What’s up with the kids these days?” is not a new one, but with Millennials, there seems  to be an entirely new set of challenges and opportunities. By 2015, Millennials will outnumber Boomers in the workforce—are you ready?

In this engaging webinar, participants learn everything they need to know about Millennials around the world. What makes this generation tick? What are their assets, liabilities, communication preferences, and top motivators? Importantly, how do Millennials differ from country to country? How are Millennials from India impacted by their emerging middle class? How have Millennials in China been affected by family planning laws? Brad Karsh provides a plan of attack on how to manage, train, and motivate Millennials across the world.

Tuesday, November 19, 2013, 11AM – 12PM PST: Putting Instructional Design in the Hands of End Users (Free for ASTD members)

User design provides an alternative to top-down expert-driven design processes. Grounded in systems theory, user design empowers frontline stakeholders to design and create their own innovations, which in turn may lead to greater adoption and diffusion of those innovations. During this webcast, we will discuss the role of instructional designers—specifically how they provide resources and facilitate the work of the design team rather than impose their expertise upon team members. We will discuss a range of user-design tools, including ethnography, cooperative design, design-based research, action research, and scenario-based design. Learn how the user-design process unfolded at the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), and the critical lessons learned as a result.

Wednesday, November 20, 2013, 11AM – 12PM PST: Sustaining Development: How to Make It Stick! (Free for ASTD members) 

Have you ever been excited to launch a development program, only to see it fade away? Have you ever witnessed a leader go through a training program, resulting in no indication of newly developed skills? A "yes" to either question means you need to re-evaluate your sustainability measures. Sustainability can be looked at in two ways: the learner level and the program level. Join us to learn how you can maximize your efforts by implementing a strategic approach to sustainability at both levels.

Thursday, November 21, 2013, 10AM – 11AM PST: Exploring the Learning Experience Canvas

This presentation introduces you to the Learning Experience Canvas, a tool for designing learning experiences. Join Peter C. Honebein, an expert in designing product and service innovations that enable customers to be co-creators of value. Explore the eight key elements of the canvas from the perspectives of design thinking, customer experience, instructional theory, and human performance.

Thursday, November 21, 2013, 11AM – 12PM PST: Inspiring Millennials: The High-Impact Learning Culture (Free for ASTD members) 

On average, one Baby Boomer retires every eight seconds. By 2014, Millennials will represent almost 47 percent of the workforce, and 75 percent by 2025. The right skills are in short supply, and talent pipelines are shrinking. Younger people are getting bigger jobs faster; and they think, learn, and behave differently. To become the kind of employer that attracts and retains both today's and tomorrow's talent, organizations need to create a workplace that is agile and nurtures learning—a high-impact learning culture. Join us to learn:

• The key elements of a high-impact learning culture
• Common obstacles to creating that culture, and how you can overcome them
• Steps you can take today to start creating the high-impact learning culture you will need for tomorrow

Thursday, November 21, 2013, 12PM – 1PM PST: Identifying and Nurturing Emerging Talent

A 2012 report by Deloitte identified eight trends in human capital that will have the most business impact over the next 18 to 24 months. One of the trends identified was the development of next-generation leaders. Identifying and nurturing emerging talent increases the availability of experienced, capable employees prepared to drive future growth. During this session, Alan Fine will explore the fundamentals of a high-performance environment, and the basic activities that create empowerment, accountability, and trust for managers and the emerging talent they lead. You will discover the three elements at the heart of high performance and will learn how to recognize and address obstacles that are getting in the way. Finally, you will explore a simple and reliable process that reduces interference, creates focus, and unblocks performance breakthroughs.

Free T&D webinars for August

There’s nothing like a month of sunshine to recharge our batteries. We all work so hard, we deserve some summer down-time, relaxing and soaking up the sun. Why not soak up some learning as well with a free webinar? We hope these August events will inspire and motivate you.

Thursday, August 8, 2013, 10:00AM – 11:00AM PST: What Can MOOCs Mean for the Corporate World?

MOOCs are the talk of the town in the higher education space, but what can they mean for corporate training? In this session we’ll discuss emerging trends, platforms, proof of impact, statistics, and business models. What does MOOC mean to you? What is the essence behind the acronym? What could it mean for corporate training? What do we need to introduce a successful MOOC in corporations? Get ready for some golden advice gleaned from early MOOC adopters while designing our LeaderMOOC (coming in September).

Friday, August 9, 2013, 10AM – 11AM PST: Ace the Interview: Behavioural Interviewing Tips (Free for ASTD members)

Employers conduct behavioural interviews to find out if candidates have the skills they need and how candidates might act in specific work situations. This webinar will explore strategies and provide tips to help you prepare and present yourself at your best. You will “look behind the curtain” and learn how and why employers develop behavioural questions. You’ll also learn about a model for answering behavioural questions that ensures interviewers will get the information they need from you during your interview. By understanding the rationale and process from the interviewer’s side of the table, you’ll be better positioned for success in your next behavioural interview!

Monday, August 12, 2013, 3:30AM – 4:30AM PST: Learning and Development Trends in India 2012 (Free for ASTD members)

Christina Mandzuk, Research Analyst for ASTD Research Services, will discuss benchmarking data from 41 Indian organizations for 2012. ASTD estimates that Indian organizations spent $331 per learner on employee learning and development in 2011. One-half was spent on internal learning functions such as staff salaries and internal development costs. The remainder was split between tuition reimbursement (6.1 percent) and external services (43.7 percent). The content from this webinar is drawn from ASTD’s Learning and Development Trends in India 2012 report (which utilized research tools based on the annual ASTD State of the Industry).

Tuesday, August 13, 2013, 11AM – 12PM PST: Managing Remote Employees (Free for ASTD members)

In today’s mobile age, work is no longer confined to your office. But while technology has helped leaders connect to their workforce faster and more efficiently than ever, it also has eroded away all the old rules that used to work in face-to-face settings. In this live webinar you’ll learn:

• Which personality types (e.g., introverts, extroverts, etc.) make the best, most engaged, most productive remote employees (HINT: It’s not what you think)
• Sure-fire ways to assess and measure remote employees’ job performance without using invasive and expensive techniques to spy on their every move
• Why you should NEVER ask “How’s it going?” to remote employees
• Three attitude adjustments that leaders must make to successfully manage remote employees
• Two keys to keeping remote employees disciplined and productive
• How to avoid the five emotional “trigger words” in e-mails that cause misunderstandings, spark conflict, and get you in trouble
• The 10-minute conversation that keeps remote employees feeling connected and engaged
• How to end every email with a “call to action” that elicits immediate productivity

Wednesday, August 14, 2013, 11AM – 12PM PST: New Rep on the Block – RSA’s Onboarding Success Story (Free for ASTD members)

So you have a new sales rep starting in your organization—how do you ramp them up? Do you have an effective plan in place, or are you struggling to create an effective sales onboarding process? This is the challenge RSA’s sales training team faced with enabling its inside sales team. This session will highlight the overall approach they took in gaining executive commitment, and how they built a world-class curriculum with limited resources.

RSA went from minimal training to full onboarding programs for two different inside sales roles. The result was the fastest ramp-up time for reps that RSA has ever seen. Kristen Gleason & David O’Connell talk about the key approaches that led to the success of this effort, including: incorporating an “it takes a village” methodology, making their internal customers a success, and building trust with their constituents.

Thursday, August 15, 2013, 10AM – 11AM PST: DECLARE: Online Instruction for Everyone

The DECLARE methodology of instructional design was developed with both the program and course in mind. DECLARE is a set of practical recommendations and content reminders used when creating training programs and courses. Register and learn to:

• Prioritize content and learner needs
• Balance the creation of engaging interactions and content
• Create relevant conceptual models that aid with student retention
• Develop SME and designer relationships.
• Develop a cohesive, consistent, and repeatable instructional design methodology and style

Thursday, August 15, 2013, 10AM – 11AM PST: Leveraging Technology for Social Learning

Social media has become a fixture in many of our lives, whether Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, or any other of the growing list of platforms. Organizations are recognizing the power of this type of technology, especially for learning. Using technology to facilitate the natural connections and interactions between learners, instructors, and content is becoming the norm. The key is recognizing the difference between social media and social learning. Webinar topics include:

• The evolution of learning
• The difference between social learning and social media
• Current trends in social learning technology
• The possibilities of social and mobile
• Examples of social learning environments

Thursday, August 15, 2013, 11AM – 12PM PST: Business-Relevant Ways to Convey Learning Impact to Executives (Free for ASTD members)

Regularly producing learning impact data that tells a story to executive stakeholders requires creativity. In this webinar we’ll discuss a next-generation movement in executive reporting and talent development reporting principles, created by a group of senior CLOs. The webinar will:

• Briefly describe practical approaches to measuring learning impact
• Explain how to convey impact in credible ways to executives
• Provide additional examples that articulate impact in common-sense ways
• Identify common metric errors that should be avoided when talking to executives
• Provide an overview of the talent development reporting principles movement

Monday, August 19, 2013, 10AM – 11AM PST: Managing Incompetence (Free for ASTD members)

"You probably chose to read this because you think you are surrounded by incompetent people. It’s true. But you must know from the start—this is my twofold approach in this story—that if you deem more than a quarter of the people around you as incompetent, then you are the most incompetent of them all."

Join Managing Incompetence author Gabriel Ginebra as he explains how everybody is to some degree incompetent. “The great deeds of mankind were not accomplished by a handful of geniuses, but by a bunch of incompetent people.” Including ourselves in this category, and learning to work with what we have, makes all the difference in how people are managed.

Tuesday, August 20, 2013, 10AM – 11AM PST: Mobile Learning in Real Life: mLearning Case Studies

Mobile learning is exciting to talk about, and the potential seems unlimited, but ambitious vision-casting can take you only so far. Are there examples out there of mLearning being used successfully in real life? This webinar will take a look at several mobile learning case studies and evaluate the initiatives on all levels from concept to completion. The presentation will cover best practices such as the importance of a process, how to build an mLearning team, and the power of prototypes and options for analytics. Attendees of this webinar will gain a strong understanding of the many skill sets needed and steps required to deliver a successful mobile learning application. They will be better equipped to tackle the multitude of challenges that are inevitable in any mLearning strategy and development effort.

Tuesday, August 20, 2013, 11AM – 12PM PST: The Leadership Assessment Process (Free for ASTD members)

Leadership assessment is a popular topic, and there are many assessment options available to practitioners. Successfully navigating the world of leadership assessment is important to ensuring that your assessment strategy will enable you to achieve your goals. This webinar will show how OPM’s Human Resources Solutions Division uses the Leadership Assessment Framework to facilitate discussions about leadership assessment needs. The framework also provides a foundation for building an assessment strategy to meet the needs of federal agencies. Objectives:

• Learn how a framework can guide your assessment strategy
• Identify factors that affect the selection of leadership assessments
• Learn how a framework can be applied to any agency

Wednesday, August 21, 2013, 11AM – 12PM PST: T+D: Global Evaluation Trends—What’s Happened since the Recession? (Free for ASTD members)

Much has changed since the global recession. Budgets are tight, business results are routinely expected, and accountability is everywhere. The learning and development community is responding to these challenges by changing its approach to evaluation. This presentation traces the shifts in measurement and evaluation (M&E) budgets; the roles of finance, accounting, and the CFO; the responsibilities of M&E; the use and impact of ROI evaluation; the proactive approach of learning leaders; and the barriers to successful M&E. Webcast attendees will learn to identify the issues for successful M&E, identify the barriers for M&E, take a proactive approach to M&E, and plan next steps.

Thursday, August 22, 2013, 10AM – 11AM PST: “Help Me Obi-Social Kenobi. Social Is My Only Hope.” Using the Force of Enterprise Social Networks to Keep Training Alive

You slave away at designing your training programs. You struggle to get people excited, enrolled, and in the “seats.” The program commences and everyone gives you awesome feedback. You feel successful. Then the momentum dies. How do you keep training excitement alive? How can you boost pre-training anticipation and post-training involvement? Enterprise Social Networks, in combination with your training efforts, can provide the solution you need. Instituting an ESN can not only help you be more successful as a trainer, but can make your trainees more successful at their given jobs.

Thursday, August 22, 2013, 10AM – 11AM PST: Keeping Your Brand Promise: Ensuring a Unified Brand Experience at Every Touch Point

Brand is everything today—and delivering a consistently rewarding experience to everyone who comes in contact with your brand is no longer simply the realm of the marketing department. Are you confident that your organization keeps its brand promise at every interaction? Are you a learning, communications, talent, or HR professional responsible for embedding critical brand messaging within your organization and delivering it to external audiences? Are you struggling to help new hires and clients experience the brand they’ve been promised? Register to learn what companies are doing to engage employees and customers alike—and ensuring their messages are authentic both inside and outside the company. Find out how HR, Learning, Marketing, and other departments can collaborate effectively and with real impact on employee behaviours, audience responses, and business outcomes.

Thursday, August 22, 2013, 10AM – 11AM PST: Leading with Wisdom: Sage Advice from 100 Experts (Free for ASTD members)

Through the research Jann Frann did for her upcoming book, Leading with Wisdom: Sage Advice from 100 Experts, Jann shows us how great leaders connect with empathy and compassion. This includes learning how to cope with death, loss, and grief. It also includes understanding life's transitions, learning to "let go," and "leaning into fear." But how do leaders learn these skills and practices? In this webcast, participants will engage in several exercises designed to learn these skills. You’ll learn:

• What it feels like to be laid off or to be a survivor of a layoff.
• How to write your own eulogy and talk about how this brings compassion and empathy into clear focus
• How to script your last moments on Earth to remind you that now is the only time you really have.

By doing these and other activities, you’ll learn how to be a better, more effective leader!

Tuesday, August 27, 2013, 10AM – 11AM PST: PowerPoint as a Graphics Editor: Simplified Visual Design for eLearning

As instructional designers we want our designs to be visually appealing and relevant, and the term “less is more” is key. How much time do you spend hunting for images or that just-right graphic? What if a few strokes of a pen or the arrangement of a few simple shapes could convey the same message more effectively? In this webinar you’ll learn about the visual cortex and how you use it every day to communicate. You'll look at examples of perceived affordances, and see how making subtle changes to your eLearning graphics can be a powerful companion to instruction. You'll also look at techniques for creating on-demand graphics following basic visual communication principles.

Tuesday, August 27, 2013, 11AM – 12PM PST: Social Media for Government Learning (Free for ASTD members)

New social media technologies and strategies provide quick, easy solutions to many of the challenges faced by workplace learning and development practitioners in the government. Social media vehicles such as Twitter and Facebook, for example, can help L&D build learning communities, facilitate quick assignments, offer updates or follow-up tips, and otherwise extend the reach of the formal training event. But government training practitioners face additional challenges in that they must separate myth from fact as pertains to the ability of government to adopt and adequately respond to social media. This webcast will address how to:

• Separate myth from fact in approaching the use of social media tools for learning
• Replicate parts of existing L&D practice using social tools
• Extend current practice through the use of social tools

Wednesday, August 28, 2013, 11AM – 12PM PST: Live! Connecting People from Jungle to Mountain Top (Free for ASTD members)

In this session, Fluor Corporation will share how to engage, connect, and inspire while reducing travel, connecting employees, and delivering consistent training through live video technology. This discussion will focus on implementing cost-effective delivery of traditional training to non-traditional locations.

Thursday, August 29, 2013, 10AM – 11AM PST: Creating a Modern Mentoring Culture (Free for ASTD members)

Mentoring has proven again and again to be a powerful and effective workforce development tool, and the need for mentoring, knowledge sharing, and skill building continues to grow. However, traditional mentoring, where an older mentor meets with a younger mentee in person to help facilitate development and groom them for career progression, is no longer adequate in today's hyper-connected and fast-paced world. Based on the September 2013 Infoline, "Creating a Modern Mentoring Culture," this webcast will describe how companies today must embrace a new form of mentoring and knowledge sharing that allows workers to find and connect with their colleagues so they can learn while on the job, share best practices throughout all areas of the business, and collaborate with people no matter where they may be located.

Thursday, August 29, 2013, 10AM – 11AM PST: Talent Optimization: Where Learning and Talent Meet

Up to this point, most organizations have expended their talent management energy on measurement and control. Unsurprisingly, the results are less than compelling. Organizations need to focus instead on effective performance—on impact where it is needed, in both the short and longer term. In other words: talent optimization. This approach uses data on competencies, personnel issues, recruitment, and other parts of corporate HR to optimize the development and deployment of talent. Instead of looking at talent as an isolated HR initiative, organizations need to work across business departments and integrate with them in order to truly be effective. Key takeaways:

• New frameworks for talent management
• Linking talent processes to learning
• Leveraging integration for reporting and analytics
• Social’s role in integration

Free T&D webinars for July

Summer’s been teasing us with little bursts of warmth—let’s hope the sun gets down to business with some good weather! In the meantime, you can get down to business by signing up for one of the free webinars being offered this month. We hope they will inspire and motivate you.

Monday, July 1, 2013, 11AM – 12PM PST: Leaders Open Doors: A Radically Simple Leadership Approach to Lift People, Profits, and Performance (Free for ASTD members)

The study of leadership development has grown very complicated. We often get stuck thinking about leadership in terms of matrices, competencies, and modules. The simple truth is that to be a leader is to open doors of opportunity for others. To be most effective, leaders need to be opportunity creators. Drawing on the concepts introduced in the new book Leaders Open Doors, leadership expert Bill Treasurer shows how leaders help people and organizations grow by creating meaningful learning opportunities.

Tuesday, July 2, 2013, 11AM – 12PM PST: Conquering Online Presentations with Confidence and Charisma (Free for ASTD members)

Confidence and charisma are key when delivering live online presentations. We all possess these attributes, but knowing how to tap into them and share them with your virtual audience will make your online presentation much more effective. Join best-selling author Jim Cathcart as he reveals how to tune up your presentation skills to connect more powerfully with your audiences. In this webinar you’ll learn how to:

• Put yourself at ease to be your best in online presentations
• Treat virtual presentations like in-person events
• Naturally engage your audience so you’re not alone as you present

Tuesday, July 9, 2013, 10AM – 11AM PST: How to Earn a Top Spot on the Training 125

Don’t miss this opportunity to get the inside scoop from three Training Top 125 judges who will pinpoint what they look for in Training Top 125 applications during the scoring process. Whether you are a veteran Training Top 125 winner or filling out the application for the first time, this special complimentary webinar can be the key to increasing your score and ranking.

Tuesday, July 9, 2013, 10:30AM – 11:30AM PST: Three-minute Activities That Teach

Enliven your training in less than three minutes with a jolt that gives learners an emotional impact resulting in surprise and discovery. Your learners will sit up, listen, learn, and gain instant insights into your training topics. Join us in this discussion of why and how to use these three-minute training “jolts” to provide practical insights before, during, and after training events. Listen as interviewer Karen Hyder challenges and probes Sivasailam “Thiagi” Thiagarajan to validate the return on investment of this approach to training the next generation, and learn about the importance of debriefing.

Tuesday, July 9, 2013, 11AM – 12PM PST: Managing a Technology Change Initiative (Free for ASTD members)

Technology is a breathtaking investment. Implementation often requires significant revenue and a heck of a lot of work, devouring profitability, time, focus, and energy. And we know that change efforts often fail. If you’re in charge of leading a technology change, how do you make sure you deliver? What does success look like? How do you communicate effectively to stakeholders? Tricia Emerson, author of the recent Technology Change Book, will show you how to be successful with one of the toughest assignments out there.

Wednesday, July 10, 2013, 10AM – 11AM PST: Best Practices in Diversity and Inclusion: A Panel Discussion (Free for ASTD members)

Diversity and inclusion (D&I) practices are important in today's workplace in light of changing demographics, globalization, the war for talent, and consumer requirements. Panelists—several chief diversity officers—will share their insight and experience on how D&I has evolved in their organizations. These chief diversity officers will discuss challenges encountered along the way, established best practices, and the future of D&I.

Wednesday, July 10, 2013, 10AM – 11AM PST: Is Sheryl Sandberg Right? Are Women Liked Less when Promoted?

Sheryl Sandberg, author of Lean In, tells a story about a businesswoman who explains to her daughter that when women are promoted and succeed in business, they are liked less by their co-workers. The daughter says, “Then I wouldn’t want to be promoted, because I want to be liked.” We’d like to see women “lean in further” and not assume that being promoted to a senior position causes them to be disliked. Interestingly, our data show just the opposite. Join us as we discuss whether the male “success-likeability bonus” is fact or fallacy, whether likeability is linked to leadership effectiveness and business outcomes, and much more. Register now to take our Likeability Assessment and see how you compare to other leaders!

Thursday, July 11, 2013, 10AM – 11AM PST: How to Get Your CEO and the C Suite to Engage the Workforce

Chances are your CEOs are left-brain types who get the numbers— things like EBITDA, ROI, net and gross revenue, income statements, balance sheets, and related “hard” data. But perhaps they don't put the same focus on “soft” business needs such as employee engagement. Many of us learning, communications, OD, and HR folks are right-brain types—more reliant on soft skills, feelings, visuals, and intuition—and thus have difficulty convincing executives to make employee engagement part of the company's strategic plan. Invite your C Suite to join you for an entertaining and fast-paced hour discussing how employee engagement DRIVES business results.

Thursday, July 11, 2013, 10AM – 11AM PST: The Role of Learning in Global Talent Management

Most often the term “talent management” refers to the life cycle of the employee, beginning with recruitment and selection, continuing through to exit interviews and retiree support, and covering everything in between. To one degree or another, the processes and programs that manage each phase of the talent cycle depend on one another. One aspect of this cycle is connected more strongly to all the others and in more ways—learning. Join Brandon Hall Group Senior Analyst David Wentworth and Alex Poulos, Chief Marketing Officer at NetDimensions, as they take a look at specific examples of how learning is inherently integrated with various aspects of talent management and how technology can leverage these connections, especially in global organizations.

Thursday, July 11, 2013, 11AM – 12PM PST: From Complex to Simple: How to Make Hard Subjects Easy through Story-based Learning

Have you caught the facts fever? If you’re comfortable with a subject matter, it’s quite likely you’re infected with the curse of knowledge. In other words, knowing too much gets in the way of communicating clearly to those who know less. Fortunately, you don’t have to be a master storyteller or presentation designer to learn how to choose, prepare, and present the right content for the right class—whether in person or online. Join Roger Courville, virtual presentation expert, for a fast-paced and practical session on how to tell a clear, compelling story that both educates and motivates. Learn:

• Three steps for transforming facts into messages
• How to design a flow that keeps the audience engaged
• Four tips for creating visuals that stand out
• A killer idea for making infographics work in online presentations

Tuesday, July 16, 2013, 10AM – 11AM PST: Tin Can: Why Your Systems Need to Talk and How the Tin Can API Can Help

We know the majority of learning that happens in the workplace (and everywhere else) is informal. People learn constantly at their jobs, solve problems, and get better at the things they care about. In order to support people we need to figure out where they’re at, what they need to do, what they want to do, and how we can remove the barriers stopping them. Without a common language, this is very hard to do. The Tin Can API (aka Experience API) is a common language for many different systems to communicate what people are doing. Learn what the Tin Can API is, how it works, and see some examples of what it can do.

Tuesday, July 16, 2013, 11AM – 12PM PST: Teaching Effective Online Dialogues for Federal Agencies (Free for ASTD members)

Easter Seals has been recognized as a best-in-class example of collaborating with government agencies and creating effective forums for online dialogues. Federal agencies are often faced with a deluge of information from the public, and are often challenged by how best to organize, capture, coordinate, and follow up on those interactions. This gap in capabilities can effectively be addressed by the training and development community. This webcast will focus on how training and development professionals can educate their agencies on effective large-scale online participation.

Wednesday, July 17, 2013, 10AM – 11AM PST: How to Make Technical & Compliance Training and eLearning Fun and Engaging

“Boring.” “Tedious.” “Painful.” “Do I have to?” These are the moans and complaints of learners as receivers of the data-dump type of very technical and compliance forms of eLearning. But when we shift the design by focusing less on the technical view and instead considering the learner’s perspective, technical and compliance eLearning can be fun and helpful. This webinar will present ideas on how to make this shift possible.

Wednesday, July 17, 2013, 11AM – 12PM PST: Get Ready for the Virtual Classroom (Free for ASTD members)

One of the biggest obstacles to moving organizations to virtual instructor-led training is the approach of the trainers themselves. Why do learning professionals resist using these tools? The answers to that question will help individuals overcome their objections and help organizations make the move to VILT smoother and more effective. Join us for this candid and entertaining webinar event.

Thursday, July 18, 2013, 10AM – 11AM PST: Mobile Learning: 5 Ways to Improve Learning Results

Are your employees increasingly mobile, but your learning programs aren’t? If so, you’re missing out on an effective way to support your programs, make an impact on learning results, and be relevant to your employees’ day-to-day jobs. Mobile learning used to be the next big thing—now it is the big thing. Join senior product marketing director Mark Brandau to find out the top five ways mobile learning can boost your learning programs. Get an overview of using mobile technologies, and learn how to:

• Provide learning on the spot, right when it’s needed
• Use mobile learning to increase learning adoption and business results
• Jumpstart your own mobile learning initiative

Thursday, July 18, 2013, 11AM – 12PM PST: Increasing Training Success: Best Practices for Implementation & Sustainment (Free for ASTD members)

Interested in a better approach to making learning initiatives work? Considering today's hectic work environment, don't you want leaders to be more engaged in learning initiatives? Register for this one-hour webinar to join experts from the award-winning employee development firm AchieveGlobal. You'll learn about a new research-based model for sustaining learning to get optimal gains on training investments. Wendy Mack and Seleste Lunsford will tap into AchieveGlobal's 50+ years of experience in delivering learning solutions, revealing best practices that are proven to boost training transfer and sustainment.

Tuesday, July 23, 2013, 10AM – 11AM PST: Building a Pipeline of Culturally Agile Professionals

While our world is becoming increasingly more interconnected through cyberspace and international airports, success in global business requires more than a passport and a plane ticket. Success in global business is a function of people—those with an ability to operate effectively in intercultural and multicultural situations—people with cultural agility. This webinar will describe what cultural agility is (and isn’t) and offer various ways HR leaders can help develop a pipeline of culturally agile professionals within their organizations.

Tuesday, July 23, 2013, 10AM – 11AM PST: Thinking of Replacing Your LMS

Learning leaders must stay a step ahead of their business, but that can be difficult when dealing with antiquated technology and limited delivery options. Over 30% of organizations in a recent Brandon Hall survey had plans to replace their existing LMS solution. Most of them look forward to the transition with dread and concern. Register today for this critical session to learn how hundreds of organizations have made successful transitions—and the tools and tricks your organization can use to upgrade successfully too.

Tuesday, July 23, 2013, 10AM – 11AM PST: Unleashing More Team Power in Your Organization (Free for ASTD members)

Have you noticed how everyone in the workplace talks about teamwork? For facilitators who specialize in teamwork, it can be frustrating to encounter old mental models and biases about team training. In this webinar, you will explore some of the common systemic barriers to effective teambuilding—from cynicism, to time and budget pressures, and more. You will also encounter some tools and strategies that you can put to work in your organization right away.

Wednesday, July 24, 2013, 10AM – 11AM PST: Is L&D an Expense or Investment?

The continually accelerating speed of change over the last several years has made employers and learners (employees) more impatient. In today's climate, investments need to provide returns in a relatively shorter period of time than they did a few years ago. This webinar will provide insight on the important factors business leaders need to consider to create the required velocity in realizing ROI, and the controls possible over direct and indirect resources. You will learn how to improve ROI on training and development by understanding the underlying factors, gaining control of them, assessing competencies and their impact on business performance, and strategizing for competence development.

Thursday, July 25, 2013, 11AM – 12PM PST: Profiling Management Success – Leveraging Performance and Analysis in Management Development (Free for ASTD members)

This session will focus on the development and research methods involved in the creation and enhancement of training and leadership development initiatives at U.S. Security Associates. The discussion will specifically highlight the Success Profile Initiative (SPI) and how the research supporting this initiative was utilized to leverage transformation in a variety of learning, training, and development components within the organization, including selection practices, targeted organizational objective accomplishment, succession strategies, and management success.

Tuesday, July 30, 2013, 5AM – 6AM PST: Learning for Transformation: Co-create & Co-achieve (Free for ASTD members)

Join this exclusive webcast presented by Ms Rajkamal Vempati, Head of Human Resources at ICICI Lombard General Insurance Company Limited, the largest private-sector general insurance company in India. Critical learning components:

• Build ownership: co-create & co-achieve; strategic agenda
• Leverage learning to transform: create a brand, sponsorship, contextualization, and business impact
• Integrate with people process: performance and talent management, leadership development, competency-based development, and organizational structure

Tuesday, July 30, 2013, 10AM – 11AM PST: Show Me the Numbers – Five Case Studies Illustrating the Effectiveness of Games and Gamification for Learning

Are learning games effective? Does gamification work? What are some practical examples of successful implementations of games and gamification in practical work environments? This webinar examines five case studies of organizations that have successfully implemented game-based learning and gamification to help increase sales and participation in leadership programs, and to reduce safety incidents and inventory loss through shrinkage. Webinar topics:

• What type of business results can be expected from games and gamification?
• What elements of games and gamification lead to success?
• What tools are used to create games and gamification results?
• Participants receive a list of “Lessons Learned” from the five case studies.

Wednesday, July 31, 2013, 11AM – 12PM PST: Global E-Learning for Today’s Multinational Work Models (Free for ASTD members)

As your organization expands its operations in the global marketplace, effective and timely eLearning becomes crucial to the success of your company and your multicultural workforce. There is a wide range of tools for developing training content, and an assortment of media for communicating that content. How can you ensure your eLearning curriculum makes the best first impression with global audiences? And how can you facilitate simultaneous release in multiple markets? Join representatives from Lionbridge, dedicated global eLearning experts, as they describe how to:

• Address the challenges of developing content for global consumption
• Utilize industry best practices for developing eLearning for a global audience
• Implement design, development, and multimedia tools that facilitate delivery to multiple markets