Teaching the Experienced Workforce Why do most organizations put 80 percent of their learning resources into supporting less than 20 percent of the workforce? Look at your organization’s budget for learning and development and try to justify why almost every program is geared to new hires and those with less than a year of experience. […]
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Interactive PDFs — An Underused Learning Solution
Not Quite E-Learning But More Than a Job Aid One of my first learning industry projects was in the late ‘90s, when printed PowerPoint facilitator guides and corresponding participant guides were all the rage. Within 10 years, e-learning had replaced many instructor-led training (ILT) sessions, which makes sense when you think about it, and why […]
Read MoreYes, You Can Do Both!
Be Responsive and Effective Can you have short, breezy learning opportunities that your learners take whenever and wherever they want that won’t make the training gods cringe? Now more than ever, learners don’t want to spend hours sitting through synchronous learning. They also don’t want to read volumes of text or sit through a lengthy […]
Read MorePerformance Objective Pitfall
The Danger of Describe If you’ve worked with me recently and turned in performance or learning objectives starting with “Describe…” you’ve most definitely gotten feedback from me questioning your choice. If you work with me sometime soon, you’ll know this is one of my pet peeves and be prepared for the questions! Yes, I do […]
Read MoreFour-in-One!
Tips to design Role-Specific Systems Training Picture this — you’re meeting with a business services client who wants to develop a custom-learning course to walk learners through the functionality of a time sheet system. You think to yourself, sure, we can do that! But then the client adds that this training must cover the requirements […]
Read MoreThe Learning Experience Evolution
From Relationship Managers to Business Consultants Many Moons Ago… …we began working with a great team at Amway on transitioning its global sales account managers from administrative/relationship-building roles to strategic, business consultants or trusted advisors. This revolutionary change in position and perspective prompted the global sales learning and development team to also radically evolve its […]
Read MoreWhy Is It Important to Know What Learners are Thinking and Feeling?
Using Empathy to Create Impactful Learning At the end of 2020, a colleague and I were recapping the year’s experiences and the abrupt shift that had to occur in learning for many companies. In particular, we’d both noticed how often the word “empathy” had come up in client conversations, and in industry articles, blogs, and […]
Read MoreAudience… Objectives… Chunk It Up!
Three Simple Steps to Create a Blended Learning Solution I think we’d all agree that 2020 forced a lot of change to training solutions in a very quick and reactionary manner. Did anyone not convert hundreds of instructor-led training (ILT) to virtual ILT on the fly? It’s now more important than ever to create and […]
Read MoreUnsolved Mysteries: Problem-Solving with Lateral Thinking
Four Lateral Thinking Techniques to Help You Get “Outside the Box” Have you ever encountered an unsolvable problem? One where, no matter how much you pound on it, the solution never presents itself? This reminds me of an old TV show, Unsolved Mysteries (recently rebooted by Netflix). Over some dramatic theme music, we would see […]
Read MoreSystems Training Is Not One-Size Fits All
Best Practices For Developing Systems-Based Training Innovative Learning Group has developed custom training for many systems, from talent management and customer relationship management to banking and financial systems. After managing many of these projects, I’ve learned that systems training is definitely not one-size fits all. However, along the way I’ve discovered three best practices that […]
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