Surviving the Test of Time

 In 1956, Benjamin Bloom (along with a group of collegues) identified three domains of learning: Cognitive (Knowledge), Affective (Attitude) and Pyschomotor (Skills). Trainers and instructional designers  usually refer to these as KSA (Knowledge, Skills, and Attitude), the end result of an effective learning event or experience. Although Bloom's Taxonomy has been around for over 50 years it's still respected by learning professionals to this day. 

One of the many things I learned as a new instructional designer was Bloom's Taxonomy and I've continued to use it over the years so I was really interested in an email I received from eLearning Guild today about a new research report they've just released.

In Cecelia Munzenmaier's report, Bloom's Taxomony: What's Old Is New Again, she describes the history and revisions that Bloom's Taxonomy has gone through and examines how it's being used. She describes why it has endured despite criticism and how it can help instructors, instructional designers, and educators of all kinds. The revised version is worth examining since it now makes it easier to precisely target a learner's desired performance. The new emphasis on cognitive processes addresses a weakness in the original taxonomy and it has also been updated to include new digital technologies like social media. It's definitely worth the read.

The eLearning Guild is offering it free to members. Membership is free if you haven't already joined.

2013 Training & Development Conferences

If you’ve had a chance to read some of our past blog posts, you’ll know that Stephanie and I believe that it’s as important to continually educate ourselves as it is to help our clients educate their employees. Reading articles, books, white papers, research articles, and blog posts, following industry tweets and attending webinars and online certification courses are great sources of educational material – and we continue to pursue these. But it’s also worth looking at larger events. They give us the opportunity to meet industry experts in person and learn first-hand about the latest research and topics that particularly interest us. It also gives us the opportunity to meet lots of other like-minded learning professionals.

We all have busy live and it takes time to find what’s out there and locate the conference that’s the right fit for our needs and interests.  So with this in mind, I’ve compiled a list of links to a number of popular T&D conferences that are being offered in 2013. I hope they inspire you!

January 30 – February 1, 2013

ASTD TEchKnowledge conference, San Jose, California

Focuses on the design and delivery, management and strategy of technology and learning.

February 15 – 20, 2013

Training 2013 conference & expo, Orlando, Florida

Training Magazine's conference for learning professionals.

March 13-15, 2013

Learning Solutions 2013, Orlando, Florida

Focuses on maximizing performance with learning technologies.

April 12-14, 2013

ISPI, The Performance Improvement Conference 2013, Reno, Nevada

Learn about performance improvement from industry leaders.

May 6-9, 2013

eLearning DevCon 2013, Las Vegas, Nevada

Focuses on delivering practical eLearning development and management skills.

May 19 – 22, 2013

ASTD 2013 International Conference & Exposition, Dallas, Texas

Focuses on workplace learning and development.

June 18-20, 2013

mLearnCon 2013, San Jose, California

Focuses on every aspect of mobile learning including management strategies, platforms, operating systems, authoring tools and technologies, content design and development, and best practices.

October 23-25, 2013

DevLearn 2013, Las Vegas, Nevada

Focuses on what’s coming next in the world of learning, what the leaders in the field are thinking and doing, and how new technologies impact management, strategy development, and learning development.

October 23-26, 2013

NASAGA (North American Simulation and Gaming Association) 2013 Conference, Sarasota, Florida

Focuses on learning professionals who use active learning methods to increase engagement, enhance retention, and improve performance. 

November 13-15, 2013

CSTD Conference and Trade Show, Toronto, Ontario

Focuses on workplace learning and development.

December 4-6, 2013

Online Educa Berlin, Berlin, Germany

The largest global eLearning conference in the world. (Thanks for the info, Bruce)

If I’ve missed an event, just drop me a line with the details and I’ll post it.

Free January 2013 Webinars

Happy New Year! We hope you had a successful and happy 2012. Stephanie and I wish you much success on your training and development endeavors in 2013. Now I’ve been remiss this month in getting my blog post of free January webinars posted in time. I thought rather than abandoning the January list and moving directly to February, I’d list what’s left for January. We hope they will inspire and motivate you.

See you online!

Thursday, January 17, 2013, 10AM – 11AM PST: Game-Based eLearning – How Does Its Effectiveness and ROI Compare to Traditional eLearning?

There is lots of buzz about “gamification” and game-based learning over the last year.  Why should your organization consider adding it to your talent development strategy?  This webinar may provide the key to igniting the performance of your workforce in 2013! Bryan Austin will share 6 reasons why hundreds of organizations are implementing game-based eLearning, and how your organization can inexpensively benchmark its effectiveness versus traditional eLearning in transferring learned skills to the workplace to improve performance.  He will also share a plan to assess the return on investment (ROI) of game-based eLearning versus traditional eLearning.

Thursday, January 17, 2013, 10AM – 11AM PST: The 2013 Employee: How they Engage, Learn and Develop into Leaders

How do you deliver great employee experiences in today’s climate of change? Evolving employee expectations, record job dissatisfaction levels, and economic slowdowns are amplifying this challenge and exposing the silos in how we manage and engage talent. Bring your HR, Learning and Leadership professionals together for a beginning of the year webinar with Stacey Harris, VP of Research and Advisory Services, Brandon Hall Group, and Kenexa co-presenters as they share best practices and trends in:

• Creating a holistic onboarding experience, for new employees as well as those who are changing positions and taking on leadership roles
• Connecting your HR, Learning, and Leadership functions to collaborate together and deliver an engaging and enriching employee experience
• Shrinking employee time to autonomy and increasing ongoing learning
• The continuation of learning - leadership training and development

Wednesday, January 23, 2013, 10AM – 11AM PST: The Power of Storytelling in the Virtual Classroom

Brain research confirms what storytellers know from experience: we learn through stories. We’re wired for it – the pattern, rhythm and structure. As a professional trainer, you use the most up-to-date facts and processes to impart knowledge and skills, but without a good old-fashioned story to put it all together, you make your learner’s job harder. Join Roger Courville, author of The Virtual Presenter’s Handbook, as he discusses practical tips for how to weave a story that will draw your learners fully into your virtual classroom. Attend this interactive webinar to discover:

• What stories to tell (hint: no “once upon a time”)
• How to choose the story elements that are right for you
• 3 steps to telling a story fit for virtual classrooms
• 4 tips for combining voice and visuals for improved impact  

Wednesday, January 23, 2013, 12:30PM – 1:30PM PST: How to Apply Advance Story-Based eLearning Design Techniques to Immerse Learners

A story-based lesson can employ the “SRIA Model – Setup, Relate, Interpret and Apply”– to improve learning. But what is the approach to create a full program where there are several lessons? How do we make the lessons work in rhythm and harmony so each lesson moves the learner from one type of emotional learning to another? How do we immerse the learner so that each lesson builds up to a final “learning realization” or “high”? In this webinar, you will learn:   

• What neurosciences and cognitive learning research tell us about the relationship between learning and the art of music,painting and writing.
• How to employ the structure and rhythm of musical notes, photos and words to raise the learners' awareness and emotions of critical content to learn?
• How to use the "Advance Story-Based Design for Learning Oscillation".
• How to identify which content warrants a different tempo, theme and visual flavor to impart the right meaning.

Wednesday, January 23, 2013, 11AM – 12PM PST: Finding Time to be a Leader (free for ASTD members)

The scarcest resource a leader has is time (not money, people, or influence). This is why the top frustrations of leaders are typically: not having enough time, struggling to balance priorities, not being proactive enough, and spending too much time doing work that someone else should be doing. This webinar will show you how to discover your own personal green light work and give you tactics for shedding all the yellow, orange, and red light work that is misusing (or wasting) your time, hurting your leadership effectiveness, and stopping you from hitting all your goals.

Thursday, January 24, 2013, 10AM – 11AM PST: Employee Engagement: Practical Tools and Strategies

Is “doing more with less,” resulting in burned out employees?  Are you finding it difficult to keep employees engaged? Even before the economic downturn less than 30% of employees were fully engaged – so the problem is growing every day.  In 2010, companies with highly engaged employees performed 22% better than the total stock index, while those with disengaged employees performed 28% worse. This presentation will give you practical tools to assess the engagement of your workforce and create strategies for increasing engagement.

Thursday, January 24, 2013, 10AM – 11AM PST: Thinking of Replacing Your LMS?

This session will help you reduce your fear and create a strategy for success during the process!
Your business needs are changing fast, and so are the demands placed on your current learning technology. Learning leaders must stay a step ahead of their business, but that can be difficult when dealing with antiquated technology and limited delivery options. Do you have that nagging awareness that it is time to switch your learning technology, but haven't wanted to face the reality of doing so? Join David Wentworth, Senior Learning Analyst for Brandon Hall Group, and Saba's Shruti Kala, Senior Manager, 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.

Thursday, January 24, 2013, 9AM – 10AM PST: Informal Learning (free for ASTD members)

This webinar is based on the ASTD/i4cp's research report, Informal Learning: The Social Evolution. It will be presented by Kevin Oakes, CEO of i4cp. Joining Kevin will be Dan Pontefract, Senior Director, Learning & Collaboration at Telus. The purpose of this report is to examine the ways in which informal learning is evolving and how organizations are leveraging it to improve performance. This Study is based on an analysis of a survey of 351 respondents. Nearly all the respondents (97 percent) reported that informal learning played a role in their learning initiatives within their organizations.

Tuesday, January 29, 2013, 10AM – 11AM PST: Shut Up and Deal the Cards: Card Games for Training

This webinar begins with a survey of 20 different types of cards that can be incorporated in training activities. It then focuses on three powerful training templates: Classification Cards explore concept categories (such as conflict-management modes) and stages in a process (such as stages in team development). With these cards you can play any game that is played with a regular deck of playing cards. In this interactive webinar learn how to create hundreds of your own card games that can involve 1 to 100 players for 5 minutes to 52 weeks.

Tuesday, January 29, 2013, 10AM – 11AM PST: The 21^st Century Mindset: Unlock Critical Thinking to Unleash Organizational Performance

We all use a variety of thinking styles in our daily lives, but we tend to favor some but rarely use others—and that hurts our ability to make good decisions. Knowing your preferred style will help you approach problems and decisions with the right mindset so you can be more successful. Join David Wentworth, Senior Analyst with Brandon Hall Group, and Dr. Judy Chartrand, as they offer you a unique opportunity not only to learn more about critical thinking and what it means for organizations, but to learn about your own thinking styles. My Thinking Styles™ from TalentLens helps you find the right balance between, so you can make the best choices, in life and at work. Between now and January 29th, Pearson is giving BHG members access to a complimentary administration of My Thinking Styles and a personalized Development Report. Then on January 29th at 1:00 EST, Dr. Judy Chartrand will give a brief overview of the Seven Powerful Thinking Styles and she’ll help you interpret your results. Your report will unlock a unique combination that will help you be more successful with your decisions, relationships, projects, and every aspect of your life – so don’t miss out!

Wednesday, January 30, 2013, 10AM – 11AM PST: Mixing it up! Merging Learning, Information, and the Social Enterprise to Maximize Impact

The increased value of learning through social enterprise collaboration and communications and the integration of quality information to support learning on-demand is a key focus area at Oracle. Hear and see what Oracle's Virtual Information Services (VIS) program has done to engage employees first with the key learning content for on-demand learning and how the integration of that information into programs and the collaboration around that information through social enterprise tools has increased awareness, productivity, engagement, and overall learning and business impact across the organization. Providing alternative ways of learning is enabling Oracle to become more productive but it starts with access to the right information at the right time - information integration, social, mobile, digital libraries.

Thursday, January 31, 2013, 10AM – 11AM PST: The Future of Virtual Learning and Collaboration

In the past, online education and e-learning failed to live up to its potential. Fortunately, the future of virtual learning is here. It’s now possible to create rich, robust and collaborative learning environments that can be delivered anywhere and anytime.  Join this Training Magazine webinar, presented by UNC Executive Development, to learn how you can realize the full potential of virtual learning in your organization. You will hear directly from one of the industry leaders based on years of experience delivering world-class online learning. 2U Inc. was recently recognized by Forbes magazine as one of the 10 start-ups changing the world. Attend this webinar to learn how the company is transforming online education and how you can do the same in your organization.

Thursday, January 31, 2013, 11AM – 12PM PST: Transformational Learning – Building a Learning Organization From the Ground Up (free for ASTD members)

In July 2010, the Global Learning and Development function at Savvis did not exist. By early 2012, the L&D function was not only in existence, they are thriving. Business unit leaders are advocates for learning, there is a direct connection to organizational strategy, leadership capability is positively moving, learning impact is measured, and the team is positively influencing the parent company. A Cinderella story? The transformation was driven not by a fairy god mother rather a well-articulated vision and intentional steps that maximized the possibility of success for this team. Learn the steps this team took to transform learning at Savvis, and how they helped the organization substantially increase learning consumption, decrease time to productivity, and increase leadership effectiveness.

Free December webinars

It’s hard to believe that 2013 is 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 this month before the year wraps up. Hope to “see” you online.

Tuesday, December 4, 2012, 10AM - 11AM PST: Straight Talk: making Performance Management Useful to Everyone

In a recent Brandon hall Survey, over 58% of the respondents stated that performance reviews did not provide applicable performance feedback. As organizations struggle to improve employee performance in a market that requires innovation and growth to stay competitive, how are organizations increasing the effectiveness of the performance management process? Join Stacey Harris, VP of Research at Brandon Hall Group, as she shares key practices on making performance management useful to everyone. Topics discussed in this webinar include:

•  Shifting employee management models
• Positive examples of effective employee focused performance management
• Case Studies of new approaches to the performance management process

Wednesday, December 5, 2012, 9AM – 10AM PST: HTML5 is Here to Stay: How to Achieve the New Content Delivery Norm

Learning organizations are facing a technology wake-up call as they realize that most of their content doesn't translate well, if at all, to mobile devices. The typical reaction is to initiate one-off projects for converting desktop courses, applications, and their Flash based components, per the specs of every major device platform. Discover a practical and streamlined production alternative for mobile portability; one that even enhances your original content. Packaging courses once in HTML5 provides endless mobile portability. With a single HTML5 content base, your content becomes easily interactive and searchable, and portable to all mobile platforms.

Thursday, December 6, 2012, 10AM – 11AM PST: Write it Right! Use a Seven Step Process to Develop Learning Activities

With so many learning experiences, techniques and devices to choose from, the course designer can be like a gourmet cook, carefully choosing just the right combination to achieve the desired results.  There is no excuse for the overuse of lecture as the primary and often only technique. What is the best activity?  There is no answer to this question.  It depends on your purpose. This workshop suggests a seven-step process to develop learning materials, identifies a “best use” for a variety of learning experiences, and presents a proven approach to designing discovery learning by writing adult learning steps to process any learning activity.

Tuesday, December 11, 2012, 10AM – 11AM PST: The Neuroscience of High Impact Learning

Brain research is pointing to fresh insights about how to make learning stick. A number of the findings are counter-intuitive, pointing to new approaches and tools for learning that can significantly increase engagement and retention of learning, using a wide range of training mediums. Join Dr. David Rock who coined the term “NeuroLeadership” and co-founded the NeuoruLeadership Institute to explore the latest findings emerging from brain research as it relates to creating high impact learning experiences, giving participants new tools for maximizing their impact.

Wednesday, December 12, 2012, 10AM – 11AM PST: Creating Instant and Rapid One-Minute Learning for mLearning and eLearning

Is there such a thing as “instant learning”? Experts in mobile and social learning say that there is increased prevalence that learners retain and learn by increments of knowledge and use them as frequently and quickly as they can. The method is “recursive learning” – small building blocks of learning with close proximity to work applications. In most situations however, the difficulty for trainers, eLearning and mLearning designers is that courses and lessons they develop are more driven towards the “completeness” of knowledge transfer rather than the “immediate application” of knowledge. In this webinar, you will learn:

•  What research and cognitive and artificial intelligence sciences have discovered on “immediacy application learning”
• How to design “immediacy application learning” – steps, procedures and outcomes
• How  to merge learning content with mLearning, eLearning and learning platforms to encourage instant learning

Thursday, December 13, 2012, 9AM – 10AM PST: New Research:  Top 5 Keys to Employee Engagement through Supervisor Development

In a new Training Magazine webinar, Dale Carnegie Training reveals results of its cross industry, in-depth study of 1,500 employees to explore engagement in the workplace. The research reveals several surprises and five practical approaches managers can use to increase employee enthusiasm, empowerment, confidence and value to their organization. Attend this session and learn how to:

•  Identify which behaviors of front line managers have the most significant impact on their employees' levels of engagement        
• Make sure your supervisor development programs focus on shaping the right practical approaches         
• Learn ways to efficiently develop the skills of your front line managers by capitalizing on virtual instruction and collaboration tools and techniques
• Get the latest whitepaper summarizing this ground-breaking research

Tuesday, December 18, 2012, 10AM - 11AM PST: Rise of the Machines: Mobile Learning Comes to Life!

Is your organization going mobile? Are you already delivering mobile learning but want to do it better? The rise of mobile learning is easily the largest learning technology trend of the decade and in the last two years the changes in the space have been exponential. Join David Wentworth, Senior Analyst at Brandon Hall Group and Chris Osborn, VP of Marketing at BizLibrary as they talk about the rise of mobile learning and the demographics of mobile adoption. They will also present case studies from companies successfully implementing mLearning.

Tuesday, December 18, 2012, 9AM - 10AM PST: ASTD State of the Industry, 2012 (Free to ASTD members)

Laurie Miller, Director of Research Services at ASTD, and Christina Mandzuk, Research Analyst will discuss benchmarking data from ASTD BEST Awards Winners, G500 Companies, and other organizations from 2003 to date. ASTD estimates that U.S. organizations spent $1,182 per learner on employee learning and development in 2011. Over half was spent on the internal learning function, such as staff salaries and internal development costs. The remainder was split between tuition reimbursement (14 percent), and external services (30 percent). The content from this webinar is drawn from ASTD's 2012 State of the Industry Report.

Tuesday, December 18, 2012, 10AM – 11AM PST: Using Strategic Assessments to Improve Learning and Performance and Drive Business Results

Most professional trainers think of assessments as tools for measuring and certifying employees' job-related knowledge and skills. Of course, that is one of their critical functions, particularly in compliance-dependent businesses. Join Steven Just, founder of Pedagogue Solution to learn how to use Strategic Assessments to Improve Learning and Performance and Drive Business Results, which will demonstrate how an active measurement strategy can improve individual, group and business performance. 

Wednesday, December 19, 2012, 10AM – 11AM PST: 10 Critical Questions to Ask of Your Stakeholders BEFORE Designing Any Training Program

Needs analysis is often an arduous and lengthy process - but it is absolutely necessary if you are to have a successful training outcome. Join Nanette Miner, an author and consultant in the field of workplace learning to learn the 10 crucial questions to ask of your internal or external clients to ensure that you are creating a training program that is truly necessary and one that will return significant business results.

Wednesday, December 19, 2012, 11AM - 12PM PST: So You Want to Design an Instructional Game? Five Things You NEED to Know (free for ASTD members)

What does it take to design a serious game? How do you create instruction that is not only meaningful and educational, but also (dare we say it) fun? What steps do you need to follow during the design process, and which steps are most critical for success? Most important, how do you even get started?

This webinar provides five practical guidelines you can use to design a game that results in valuable learning outcomes. You will learn research-based tips and techniques for designing effective—and engaging—instructional games. Join game experts Karl M. Kapp and Koreen Olbrish as they discuss five key factors you need to know to develop an “epic” instructional game.

Thursday, December 20, 2012, 10AM – 11AM PST: Three Aspects of Performance Improvement

During this webinar you will be introduced to three interdependent aspects of performance improvement: the systematic process, the consulting process, and the building brand process. All three aspects contribute to sustaining changes required for improving the performance of people, work teams, and organizations as a whole.   You will gain insights and get three tools that you can use to explain performance improvement to others and guide your own development in the profession. 

Thursday, December 20, 2012, 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? Join Brandon Hall Group Chief Strategy Officer Michael Rochelle and Senior Analyst David Wentworth as they walk you through the selection process, delivering concrete steps and strategies to make the journey to LMS selection far simpler. The session will also include an informative demonstration of Brandon Hall Group’s LMS KnowledgeBase and Selection Tool.

Free November webinars

Well November, and winter, is officially here! Keep warm and dry by signing up for free webinars being offered this coming month. We hope they will inspire and motivate you.

Tuesday, November 6, 2012, 10AM – 11AM PST: Learning Meets Big Data: Using Analytics to Create Learning that Works!

Over a third of learning organizations stated that their top priority in 2012 was creating a learning strategy. Why? As an industry, we are still struggling to measure the effectiveness of the learning we create and tie it to business performance. Developing a sound learning strategy requires direction, data and an honest assessment of what’s working and what’s not with your organization's learning. Stacey Harris, the VP of Research from Brandon Hall Group, and Mark Hellinger, CEO of Xyleme, will discuss insights on rethinking the idea of learning analytics. New research highlights how consumer driven learning is changing the market, and how new technologies can help you not only address those changes but do a better job at connecting your learning efforts to performance outcomes. We’ll share key practices in evaluating your learning; focusing on content, users, and business outcomes.

Tuesday, November 6, 2012, 10AM – 11AM PST: What to do When There’s too Much to do: Reduce Tasks, Increase Results and Save 90 Minutes a Day (free to ASTD members)

Are you tired of hearing "do more with less"? Many people are already working as long and as hard as they can, and "productivity improvement" classes can be hard to swallow. Laura Stack, The Productivity Pro, turns time management on its head and shows overwhelmed professionals how to actually DO LESS and ACHIEVE MORE. They'll produce greater results and create significant impact on organizational goals. Laura teaches her latest thinking using this innovative workflow formula to reduce to-do lists, reduce commitments, reduce distractions, reduce the glut of information, reduce inefficiencies, and reduce energy expenditure. Past clients using these systems and methods report savings of 90 minutes a day and higher productivity than ever before.

Wednesday, November 7, 2012, 10AM – 11AM PST: eLearning Content is Everywhere! How to Bring it Alive with Online Video Presentations

Everywhere you look, eLearning content is begging to be captured and put online. Every time an expert gives a lecture, an executive keynotes a conference, a techie gives a chalk talk, a product manager briefs a sales team, or a manager hosts an orientation, valuable content is being created. In this webinar, led by internet content pioneer Michael Kolowich (the Emmy-winning TV news reporter who founded ZDNet) you'll get practical advice on how to capture and deploy multimedia online presentation material in a way that captivates and engages an audience at a very modest production cost.  Michael will show a case example of how one of the world's leading medical schools is using online presentation tools to deploy a brand-new Lectures On Demand series for pay-per-view and subscription continuing medical education programs.

Thursday, November 8, 2012, 10AM – 11AM PST: Evaluation Practices, Promises and Barriers: How do YOU Measure Up?

On one hand, we say we honor evaluation, that we are eager for evidence and data. On the other hand, most reported practice is far from enthusiastic about metrics.  Today’s economic climate has increased accountability in organizations and required training and performance professionals to look in a data-driven way at their influence. At the same time, technology-delivered training, learning management systems and a host of tools has increased possibilities for data collection.  Are organizations using these tools?  And if so, to what ends? Join Dr. James Marshall, faculty member of the Department of Educational Technology at San Diego State University to learn more about evaluation promises, practices and barriers and give you an opportune ity to examine your efforts in light of the possibilities. How do you compare to the reported efforts of our respondents? How can we all do better?

Thursday, November 8, 2012, 10AM – 11AM PST: Thinking of Replacing Your LMS

Your business needs are changing fast, and so are the demands placed on your current learning technology. Learning leaders must stay a step ahead of their business, but that can be difficult when dealing with antiquated technology and limited delivery options. Do you have that nagging awareness that it is time to switch your learning technology, but haven't wanted to face the reality of doing so? 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. Can they make a solid business case for the change? Will the transition impact business processes or mission-critical learning needs?

Join David Wentworth, Senior Learning Analyst for Brandon Hall Group, and Saba's Shruti Kala, Senior Manager, 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.

Thursday, November 8, 2012, 11AM – 12PM PST: 10 Best Practices for Engaging Live Online Learning (free to ASTD members)

You have the lofty goal of developing interactive, dynamic and memorable live online training, but what can you do to keep virtual learners truly engaged and participating?  Join this webinar to hear Sheri Jeavons, founder of Power Presentations, discuss how to deliver effective, engaging online sessions that will leave your attendees eager to learn. Discover:

• Tips to convert in-person training into live virtual sessions        
• Delivery techniques to keep your learners engaged        
• A content development format to create a compelling 5-minute introduction      
• Best practices for training online with the GoToTraining tool      

Friday, November 9, 2012, 10AM – 11AM PST: Designing Virtual Training for a Global Audience

One advantage of the virtual classroom is the potential for global reach.  Participants no longer need to fly long distances to attend a class; instead, we can bring the classroom to them! However, when incorporating international participants into your virtual training classes, it’s important to design sessions with global audiences in mind. In this interactive webinar, you’ll learn three principles to consider when designing for global audiences – how to:

• Design virtual sessions with a multicultural mindset
• Create a comfortable learning environment for all participants, including international attendees
• Apply cultural adaptations to virtual training designs

Friday, November 9, 2012, 11AM – 12PM PST: Get Your New Hire Salespeople Up to Speed…Fast!

Hired and fired! It’s the revolving door of hiring salespeople and firing them 90 days later for poor performance. You loved them in the interview, but somehow they flopped on your team. Many sales leaders and business executives point their fingers at the sales people for failing to deliver on expectations. However, those fingers should be pointed at the executives if a structured salesperson onboarding program is not in place. Top performing companies don’t perceive adding headcount to the sales team as hiring, but rather as a corporate investment in revenue. Join Lee Salz, leading sales management strategist, for this virtual training to learn how to protect that investment and ensure a high rate of return. In addition, you will also receive Lee’s eBook titled “Sales Person Onboarding Best Practices”

Tuesday, November 13, 2012, 10AM – 11AM PST: Exploring Innovation in the Learning Landscape

Explore teaching and learning strategies that foster innovation. Discover practical ways that businesspeople and lifelong learners incorporate innovation into their work. David Wentworth, Senior Analyst with Brandon Hall, and Laurie Burruss, Senior Director of Education at Lynda.com, explain the key tenets of innovation, and discuss the role and benefits of questioning, experimentation, observation, associating seemingly unrelated concepts, and sharing. Topics to include:

• How to produce innovators, not just subject matter experts
• Lessons from curious and creative risk takers and real-world leaders
• Case studies and best practices

Wednesday, November 14, 2012, 10AM – 11AM PST: Can Social Learning Succeed Alongside an LMS?

Social learning is natural, effective and can be low-cost. It’s no wonder so many organizations are keen to embrace it. But most already have a Learning Management System (LMS) in place. Can the two be reconciled? Can collaborative, informal, discursive learning fit with the course- and resource-based approach of the LMS? Join Johanna Sadoudi, CEO of VITAMINDS and David Wentworth, Senior Learning Analyst with Brandon Hall Group as they explore this issue, using real-world examples. Johanna will draw on her depth of experience in the industry, having overseen L’Oréal’s LMS deployment, rolling it out to 60,000 people across 45 countries.

Wednesday, November 14, 2012, 11AM – 12PM PST: How Technology is Shaping the Future of Learning (free to ASTD members)

This session will introduce you to the technologies that are shaping the future of the World Wide Web and how those technologies disrupt existing web based training design. In this session you will learn the five key principles of the web that has sustained its growth; 1) The web wants to be fed, 2) The web wants to understand what it is being fed, 3) The web wants content to be viral, 4) The web wants you to know you and 5) The web wants you to communicate. Using these 5 principles, you’ll explore how to design for a web that is evolving based on these principles in a way that is significantly different from existing design methods.

Wednesday, November 14, 2012, 10AM – 11AM PST: How do YOU think? And Can You Think Better for Better Results?

We all use a variety of thinking styles in our daily lives, but we tend to favor some and rarely use others-and that hurts our ability to make good decisions. Taking a thinking assessment can help you find the right balance, so you can make the best choices, in life and at work. Join Training magazine and TalentLens, a Pearson business and learn how to improve your effectiveness and that of your team by leveraging new thinking styles.
 
When you register for the webinar, you will have the opportunity to take the My Thinking Styles assessment and receive your free personalized development report. Then, during the Webinar, Dr. Judy Chartrand, chief scientist at TalentLens, will give a brief overview of the seven thinking styles and help you interpret your results. Knowing your preferred style will help you approach problems and decisions with the right mindset. Your development report will unlock a unique combination that will help you be more successful with your decisions, relationships, projects, and every aspect of your life-so don't miss this opportunity!

Thursday, November 15, 2012, 10AM – 11AM PST: Converting SMEs to the NEW FAITH: Less Content is Better, Faster and Cheaper

When you ask an SME, “What should learners learn from the content?” the response is usually “all” or “everything”. This is the OLD RELIGION where the data is “compressed and dumped” for learners to learn. This is costly and detrimental to the performance of workers. In this webinar you will learn:

• How to approach SMEs and present costs and statistical evidence that less content is better, faster and cheaper
• How to assist SMEs to redesign the way they write content
• How to discover sources of information, cases, examples and experiences within the company that help persuade SMEs to rethink their approach
• How to conduct brainstorming for content development with SMEs following processes and procedures that will guarantee
• An effective design - short and less in content

You will also receive the “SME Content Conversion Step-by-Step Process” - an interviewing guide.

Thursday, November 15, 2012, 10AM – 11AM PST: Understanding Analytics for the Learning Organization

The topic of “analytics” has been on fire lately – everyone is talking about it, asking for it, and trying to figure out how to use it. In a recent Brandon Hall Group survey, over 46% of organizations said that changes in business performance was one of the top measures they used to evaluate the effectiveness of their learning. There is no doubt that learning analytics are important, but data is only valuable if you know how to leverage it for sound business decisions.  

Join Stacey Harris, VP of Research for Brandon Hall Group, and Vinay Nilakantan, Director Product Development and Research for Meridian, as they hold an in-depth conversation on the topic of Learning Analytics.   

Wednesday, November 28, 2012, 4AM – 5AM PST: Creating creative leaders (Special time to accommodate live participation from members and customers from around the world. This session will also be recorded for on-demand viewing.) (free to ASTD members)

If creativity and innovation are top imperatives for your organization, then you also need to build the right leadership capability. However, when we try to develop organizational capabilities for creativity we often focus on the act of creativity rather than how to lead it. Leaders have a critical role in fostering creativity and innovation to build more dynamic organizations. This webinar will provide takeaways to immediately use to bring more creativity into your organizations whether you are new to the field (of creativity) or already a practitioner. Take advantage of endless opportunities to tap into more creative potential within ourselves, our teams, and our organizations. The more deliberate we are in our creativity and innovation efforts, the better the result. . And, what may be most surprising: You don’t need to be creative to be a creative leader (it can even be a barrier!).

How much priority do you put on your learning?

It’s been a very busy year for us at Limestone Learning Solutions – never a bad thing when you’re a consultant. But being busy can have drawbacks too. There never seems to be enough time to focus on personal development and looking back over my calendar this year, I realize that I’ve fallen into that trap. I post a list on our Limestone blog of free webinars offered on line each month and sign up for ones that interest me. I have best intentions but something work related always seems to pop up at the last minute and I end up cancelling. The same goes with industry-related reading, blog posts and tweets. I run across interesting ones and file them away for a “rainy day” reading but it rarely happens. A good example of this…I was given a really interesting book two weeks ago from a colleague of mine and I’m still on page 16!

Personal learning should always be a priority. So with some rearranging of my schedule and putting selected webinars and interesting reads on my “A” list of things to do, I’m committed to making it happen more consistently.

Have you run into the same challenge? If so and you’ve found a workable solution, I’d love to hear about it. I’ll be posting the free November webinar list in the next couple of days so check it out. I hope to “see” you online!

Free September webinars

September is just around the corner and summer vacations are coming to an end for many of us. Sigh… But now is a great time to take advantage of the free September webinars coming up to brush up our skills, learn about new industry trends and bring a fresh focus to our work. So take the few minutes, look over the list of webinars below to see what interests you. We hope they will inspire and motivate you.

See you online!

Wednesday, September 5, 2012, 10AM – 11AM PST: No Time for Training? Options that Work.

You’re juggling a million things but you know it’s important to have some strategic time and learn new things. How can you facilitate brief sessions with your staff to keep learning and strategy alive? Join Lou Russell, CEO, Russell Martin & Associates to learn ideas for learning within the chaos, ways to leverage technology to create communities and thoughts on how to chunk out existing resources into sound-bytes.

Wednesday, September 5, 2012, 1PM – 2PM PST: Special Webinar - How to Measure and Increase the ROI of your Exhibit

Making the decision to exhibit at a conference is difficult these days. The cost of exhibiting continues to increase. Exhibit budgets are often difficult to justify. Top executives and financial executives are demanding more accountability. In some cases, executives are suggesting that if you cannot show the value of exhibiting, you should skip the conference.

The good news is that it is possible to measure the success of your exhibit in a very credible CEO and CFO friendly way. Attend this webinar to learn about the ROI Methodology, created by the ROI Institute. This methodology is now being used by many trade show exhibitors to show the value of exhibiting. This approach requires additional planning for your exhibit, setting objectives for implementation and impact, and conducting a follow-up to track the success of the exhibit at a set time after the show.

Thursday, September 6, 2012, 10AM – 11AM PST: The Wonders of Captivate 6!

Captivate 6 was released this summer and what a release it is! Joe Ganci, President of Dazzle Technologies has used Captivate for many years and will take you through a fun and revealing look at all the new and great features of Captivate 6.

Thursday, September 6, 2012, 11AM – 12PM PST: Learning Transfer: The Two Key Questions (Free for ASTD members)

Good training can provide significant value and a competitive edge for companies provided it is transferred and applied to the work of the trainees. And that, for many programs, is the weak link. In this fast-paced and interactive webinar, the authors of the ASTD Infoline "Ensuring Learning Transfer," will explain what learning professionals can do to facilitate learning transfer. They will explain the "two key questions" that must be answered positively for transfer to occur and they will provide practical guidance on how to influence the answers to those questions. A handout will be provided in advance.

Wednesday, September 12, 2012, 10AM – 11AM PST: Integrated Learning Analytics Strategies & Best Practices for Success

Understanding the results your learning programs have on your organization’s top and bottom line can ensure greater success of your learning initiatives. Having the right tools in place to track and analyze in real-time is key. Learn how integrated analytics can make your organization more effective. You’ll interact with our speakers as we demonstrate the impact of integrated analytics on the top and bottom line. You will learn how to add value through tactical, strategic, quantitative and qualitative measurement, go beyond ROI to the strategic use of learning analytics, mitigate the risk of bad data in, bad data out and succeed with improving the bottom line                    

Wednesday, September 12, 2012, 10AM – 11AM PST: Five Earth-Shattering Topics for Management Development That I Learned from my Friends (Free for ASTD members)

Management is management. Leadership fundamentals don't change. Right? Wrong! While some of our longest held beliefs about management and leadership are still relevant, the fundamental skills that all managers will need to succeed in today's business climate are shifting. During this webinar, Lisa Haneberg will share the trends and new topics that your management development programs ought to be addressing. She will share specific examples from several experts whose work is on the edge and pushing our thinking about management forward. This session will be high energy, offer high intrigue, and be highly actionable.

Thursday, September 13, 2012, 10AM – 11AM PST: How to Transition from Training to Coaching

Training and coaching go hand in hand. Research shows that when training is reinforced with coaching, learning increases significantly. Join Tim Hagen, training expert and founder of Sales Progress, as he reveals specific strategies for how you can enhance and extend your training results with coaching. Learn why managers are resistant to coaching, the #1 barrier to coaching and how to overcome it, why trainers need managers to coach and more.

Thursday, September 13, 2012, 10AM – 11AM PST: Employee Development on a Shoestring: Developing Talent Outside the Classroom (Free for ASTD members)

With training budgets slashed and organizations struggling to do more with less, many employees as well as those responsible for their development are challenged to find ways to address employee development needs. While classroom and online training is a popular and first-in-mind development method, it can be costly and complex. In addition to possibly being out of reach for budgetary and cost-to-productivity reasons, even when training is available it may not be the only or the best way to address learning needs. In this webinar, explore other, non-training ways to develop employees on a tight budget. Consider the pros and cons of various non-training development methods, consider the requirements and specifications of three specific employee development ideas, and begin to develop a strategy for implementing new employee development methods for your organization.

Tuesday, September 18, 2012, 12:30PM – 1:30PM PST: Proof that Stories Improve Comprehension and Retention

“Too long.” “Too costly,” Too wishy-washy.” “Fluff.”   Many eLearning leaders and developers are skeptical about the use of interactive stories in eLearning.  Anecdotal and scientific research in educational institutions suggests that stories facilitate learning.  However, in the corporate world, stories are discouraged and misunderstood. In this session, Ray Jimenez will present a research report on “Story Impacts Learning and Performance.” The research covered 500 respondents who participated in a controlled and blind study to evaluate two types of eLearning: one with stories and another without stories.  The results show the impacts on comprehension and retention and the engagement levels of the learning.  Furthermore, the findings suggest that stories, although add development time, actually reduces learning time and therefore reduces the costs of eLearning project. The session is a research presentation, question and answer session and small group discussions on the impacts and applications of the research findings. 

Tuesday, September 18, 2012, 10AM – 11AM PST: The Role of Intuition Smarts in Workplace Innovation Training

A renewed focus on innovation in business means a lot more training is needed.  One of the things that might not be top of mind in designing an innovation training program is intuition skills.  Yet, if everyone had intuition smarts, innovation would be a cinch. Arupa Tesolin, an expert in workplace intuition skills explains why you need to include intuition skills in your training program and how to position it alongside other innovation skills.

Tuesday, September 18, 2012, 10:30AM – 11:30AM PST: Research-Based Learning: 15 Years of Balancing Research and Practice (Free with a free eLearning Guild membership)

As workplace learning-and-performance professionals we have passion and good intention but are unable to maximize performance because we are infected with misinformation about how learning really works. While scientific research is a good starting point for building a base of common knowledge for our field, many of us rely more on opinions and poorly conceived benchmarking. In this session, join Dr. Will Thalheimer, who has spent the last 15 years working to bridge the gap between research and practice. He’ll share some of his research findings, talk about the state of the industry, and make recommendations on how to create best-in-class eLearning and transform our organizations into ones that truly maximize on-the-job performance.

Tuesday, September 18, 2012, 10AM – 11AM PST: How Free is Free? A Look at Open Source LMS vs. Off the Shelf Solutions

The concept of open source software is nothing new, and more companies are exploring this option when it comes to their LMS as a way to save money. Often the idea of a free (or nearly free) solution with endless configuration and customization potential is too attractive to pass up. Join David Wentworth, Senior analyst with Brandon Hall Group and Dan Medakovic, V.P. Learning Solutions, from Blatant Media’s AbsorbLMS as they explore the ins and outs of open source solutions, with a focus on data the experiences companies have had using these tools as well as insights into the true cost of ownership of these systems.

Wednesday, September 19, 2012, 1PM – 2PM PST: Help them Grow or Watch Them Go: Career Conversations Employees Want

To reach new levels of performance there must be a link between what the individual employee is passionate about and what the organization needs to grow its business.  One way to insure that linkage is for every manager to be held accountable for having solid development discussions with their employees.   Research suggests that if an individual is challenged in their position, finds their work to be meaningful, and believes that their manager truly cares about their growth, their engagement will be high. In this session Bev and Julie will share the research from their new book to demystify the Individual Development Plan (IDP) conversation.     

Wednesday, September 19, 2012, 10AM – 11AM PST: Why We Needed a Social LMS: The AMD Story

Is your organization struggling with how to leverage social learning within your overall learning strategy? Do you see the value of social learning, but aren’t quite sure how to implement it within your organization? The reality is, every organization uses social learning, which is the informal transfer of information from one learner to another. The challenge all organizations are facing is to harness the power of social learning and formalize it so that its power can be used throughout the organization. Learn about exciting findings on Relationship Centered Learning, how it’s changing the face of learning for organizations, what social learning is and the components that make up a social LMS, and AMD’s Dave Stachura, Manager of Global Sales Enablement, who will present AMD’s story of implementing social learning, through a social LMS, throughout their organization.

Thursday, September 20, 2012, 10AM – 11AM PST: Top 10 Practices for a Successful LMS Replacement

Based on Brandon Hall’s most recent LMS Trends survey, one out of every three organizations is looking at replacing their Learning Management System. When the time comes and replacement is inevitable, the first step shouldn’t be product demonstrations – but rather the development of a replacement strategy. A little up front work goes a long way towards a successful LMS replacement and implementation outcome. Partnering effectively with your current LMS provider is critical to ensure a smooth transition. Join Stacey Harris, VP of Research for Brandon Hall Group, and Jason Marceau, VP of Operations from Meridian as they outline key elements of an effective replacement strategy, and key practices for successful replacement implementations.

Tuesday, September 25, 2012, 10AM – 11AM PST: For Optimal Learning, Mix It Up

There’s a lot of buzz about using social and collaboration tools to dramatically boost learning results. What does such an approach mean for your investment in LMS? In this webcast, explore the optimal mix of learning approaches and where, when, and why it makes sense to incorporate social learning with formal, LMS-based learning.

Thursday, September 27, 2012, 10AM – 11AM PST: Thiagi and Tracy’s Favorite Jolts for Webinars

Jolts are quick and powerful learning activities designed to jump-start your sessions in less than 5 minutes and provide an emotional impact resulting in surprise and discovery. Your participants will sit-up, listen, learn, and gain instant insights into your training topics. In this session, Thiagi and Tracy will share their favorite jolts and debriefing activities that are especially designed and adapted for the use in webinars including selecting and adapting jolts for webinars to effectively achieve your performance objectives and learning how to leverage your participant's introspection and interaction with follow-up debriefing activities.                                                                        

Free Summertime Webinars

Although the calendar proclaimed it officially summer last month, sunny summer days have been very slow to arrive in Vancouver. But with summer vacations just around the corner for clients, project work can slow down a bit so it’s a great opportunity to catch up on new industry trends, research and ideas. Check out the free webinars being offered this summer. We hope they will inspire and motivate you.

Tuesday, July 10, 2012, 10AM – 11AM PST: ROI Basics: Calculating the ROI

Join Patti Phillips, President & CEO, ROI Institute for her fourth and final webinar in the ROI series. To calculate the ROI you must convert impact measures to money, compare it to the program costs, and identify intangible benefits. During this webcast, you will learn a variety of methods to convert measures to money, five steps to convert a measure to money and cost categories that make up the fully-loaded program costs.  Click on the link to also access the recordings of her three previous ROI webinars if you happened to miss them.

Tuesday, July 10, 2012, 11AM – 12PM PST: Mobile Learning: Delivering Learning in a Connected World

This webinar is based on ASTD and i4cp's recently published report, Mobile Learning: Delivering Learning in a Connected World. This report looks at the current landscape of mobile learning in a world in which the ubiquity of mobile devices seems to have created a perfect environment for delivering learning solutions to our workforce, where or when they need it. Upside Learning’s Kevin Oakes, i4cp's CEO, will discuss how mobile technology is changing the world and our experience of it. From an organizational perspective, mobile learning allows for a spectrum of possibilities that were not present before, and they continue to evolve before us. The findings of this Study indicate that companies with learning functions that help meet both learning and business goals tend to be higher market performers.

Wednesday, July 11, 2012, 10AM – 11AM PST: How to Create Interactive Scenarios in Articulate Storyline

Join Tom Kuhlmann, VP of Community at Articulate and author of the widely popular “Rapid e-Learning Blog” as he shares his simple 3C model where you challenge the learner to make a decision, offer some choices, and produce consequences that provides relevant feedback or additional challenges. Then he’ll show you how to quickly create them using Articulate Storyline. You’ll learn to:

• Use the 3C model to build decision-making scenarios
• Build interactive models using states, layers, and triggers in Storyline
• Craft interactive branched scenarios, and
• Discover how to create, share, and re-use what you build.  

Wednesday, July 11, 2012, 11AM – 12PM PST: Design is Everything: 5 Techniques for Designing an Interactive Virtual Class (ASTD members only)

If you want to create a powerful learning experience for your online learners, your virtual training must be engaging – which means your virtual classroom design must be exceptional. In this first webinar in the 2-part Virtual Classroom Design series, learn 5 techniques you can apply immediately to take your interactive virtual training to the next level. 

Thursday, July 12, 2012, 10AM – 11AM PST: “What if I die today?” – Story Impacts eLearning Exercise: Building Stories using StoryLine

Using the book, “Story Impacts Learning and Performance” as a point of reference, Ray Jimenez will share how he uses engaging stories and Articulate StoryLine to author “What if I die today?” – Story Impacts eLearning Exercise. Ray will provide in advance, the source code to the self-reflection exercise, authored in StoryLine. You can investigate the authoring design prior to learning more about the approach during the actual webinar. You will learn how to:

• Build basic game-like story elements using animation, objects, scenes and slides, timelines, layers and triggers
• Use variables for multiple decision points
• Provide game-like feedback for progress tracking

Thursday, July 12, 2012, 11AM – 12PM PST: Taking Learning Mobile: The Power of Learning Everywhere (ASTD members only)

Once a learning organization has committed to “go mobile,” it may seem as though the hardest decision has been made. Soon after this path is chosen, though, reality sets in. There are many things to consider as you work to build your initial efforts for the varieties of mobile devices. This webinar will focus on how to get started with mobile learning, including deciding on an initial project and changing your design approach. Join Chad Udell, a seasoned expert on mobile learning and author of the new ASTD book, Learning Everywhere, as he demystifies the choices involved in developing mobile learning content, and provides real-world experience on how to get down to business creating mobile learning.

Thursday, July 12, 2012, 10AM – 11AM PST: Empowering Employees: Sustainable Career Management Models

In the next five years, businesses will experience major demographic changes as far as their workforces are concerned. Just to name a few: Workforces will continue to become more diverse; millennials are projected to represent more than 50 percent of the overall labor force; and the capabilities required to lead in tomorrow’s economy will be different than the capabilities required today. Join Stacey Harris, VP of Research, David Wentworth, Sr. Learning Analyst for Brandon Hall Group, Jeff Gill, Director, Talent Management and Acquisition and Amy Jo Womack, HR Systems Manager for Valerus as they share the latest research in creating Career Enhancing programs that work for mid-market organizations.

Thursday, July 12, 2012, 8AM – 9PM PST: Building the Business Case for Learning Measurement

Often the only barrier that separates an organization from getting the software it needs is a compelling argument. During this webinar, KnowledgeAdvisors will help you structure your information so you can make the following compelling argument to your leaders, “We need an evaluation measurement system. Here’s why, and here are the benefits.” While this argument will use MTM as an example, you can use the fundamental structure to argue for any software.

Tuesday, July 17, 2012, 11AM – 12PM PST: Informal Learning Basics: What ARE the Basics?

Informal learning might represent as much as 70 percent of workplace learning and be one of the most talked-about topics in training today. But what is it really? What forms can it take? When can it make a difference in workplace performance and when might it actually detract from it? What role, if any, do Training and Development professionals play in informal learning? Join Saul Carliner, author of the new ASTD best-seller, Informal Learning Basics, as he introduces the basics of informal learning.

Tuesday, July 17, 2012, 10AM – 11AM PST: A Unified Approach to Learning Management

As always, the way your learner’s access information (technology – web/mobile) and the number of channels available and utilized to learn (classroom/self-paced/social/informal) continue to increase, these pose challenges regarding how to effectively and efficiently manage learning for your organization. The need of the hour is a unified approach to this problem. Current organizational challenges in managing learning demand a system that understands that different technology options) and different channels of learning are a part of the whole learning experience. Join David Wentworth, Senior Analyst at Brandon Hall Group, and Jason Clymer, VP - Client Acquisition and Partner Development at Upside Learning as they shed more light on the idea of unified solution approaches as they discuss the need and advantages of an untied learning ecosystem.

Wednesday, July 18, 2012, 11AM – 12PM PST: Facilitating in the Live Online Classroom: 5 Techniques to Master Delivery (ASTD members only)

What do the best virtual trainers do? They engage learners by presenting, facilitating and teaching in ways that bring the online classroom together. Join this final session in the Virtual Classroom Design series, to discover the 5 techniques master trainers and presenters use to deliver their virtual lessons with real energy. Learn how to:

• Effectively engage out-of-sight participants
• Maintain high enthusiasm during delivery
• Harness your voice for the microphone
• Prepare for unforeseen technical issues

Thursday, July 19, 2012, 11AM – 12PM PST: Developing a Client Centric Culture – A SunTrust Case Study

Differentiating your organization in today’s market can help increase revenue and develop stronger client relationships. SunTrust was able to evolve and deploy a client centric culture that enabled their organization to display growth, improve client relationships, and enhance the talent and development of their sales managers and leaders. SunTrust’s strategic approach to a sales talent and training development program allowed their sales managers to link sales, service and client loyalty while remaining committed to putting clients first. As part of Brandon Hall Group’s Excellence Award Winners Webinar Series, join Mary Slaughter, SVP, Talent Management & Development from SunTrust Banks, Inc.; David DiStefano, Chief Executive Officer, Richardson; and Rachel Ashkin, Chief Operating Officer, Brandon Hall Group, as they share how SunTrust effectively developed and implemented a new sales and sales management curriculum designed to address the current business climate and desired sales leadership competencies.

Tuesday, July 24, 2012, 10AM – 11AM PST: I Want to Work THERE! 3 Keys to Creating an Engagement Culture

An organization’s culture has a tremendous influence on employee engagement. A culture that features opportunity, personal accountability, inclusion, community, and validation will lead to engaged employees. But how do you create that culture and how do you maintain engagement throughout an employee’s time at your company? Join Cornerstone OnDemand’s, Bob Kelleher, CEO of The Employee Engagement Group and Kevin Sensenig, Global Vice President, Learning and Organizational Development, Dale Carnegie & Associates, Inc. and discover best practices from two employee engagement experts. Explore how to create an employee engagement culture through three steps:
1. Hire the right people
2. Foster engagement through onboarding
3. Maintain engagement for the long term 

Tuesday, July 24, 2012, 11AM – 12PM PST: What Research Tells Us about Games, Gamification and Learning (ASTD members only)

This decidedly unacademic presentation provides a broad scientific overview of what research has taught us about the effectiveness of games and game-elements in changing learner behaviors. We will consider how playing a video game changes a person’s behavior, how avatars can shape in-game and out-of-game behavior, and how storytelling helps learners memorize facts. We’ll answer questions like: What makes a game…a game? How do points and rewards fit into games? Why are challenges, feedback, and interactivity the keys to successful games? Do serious games have to be entertaining to be educational?

Learn how to use the existing research literature in your own design and delivery of learning. This webinar also includes several practical case studies outlining how the research tips, techniques, and practices can be applied in a real-life online learning situation.

Tuesday, July 24, 2012, 10AM – 11AM PST: Moving Knowledge for Rapid Business Impact

Learning at work is changing – and not just in how it is delivered. The drivers behind “why” learning is even relevant are shifting as well. Executives and managers recognise the value and power of distributing information quickly, to support anything from security compliance to product launches to corporate values. This top-level recognition marks a move from ‘HR-driven’ to ‘business-led’ learning, something with profound implications for learning and development professionals. What systems do we need to meet these new business needs? What influence do millennials and other learners have? And what impact will this have on the L&D function as a whole?  Join Stacey Harris, VP, Research & Advisory Services, Brandon Hall Group and Donald Taylor, Chairman, Learning and Performance Institute as they draw on a range of practical examples to explore the trends changing the face of workplace learning today.

Wednesday, July 25, 2012, 10AM – 11AM PST: Critical Competencies for 21^st Century Leaders

Successful leadership involves managing one’s self and relationships with others to move toward a specific business goal. The role of a leader is to grow others - helping people grow their skills, knowledge, and confidence to develop leadership themselves in a real, practical context. The real world has other plans, however. Business goals are fluid, people are stressed, and one-way technological messages continue to invade every moment of our lives. One thing remains the same – leadership is all about people. In this session, learn how you can clear a little chaos and build a high performing team and how to take the time to consider a new approach to leadership while faced with predictable, constant chaos.

Wednesday, July 25, 2012, 9AM – 10AM PST: Hit the Ground Running: Establishing a Model Executive Onboarding Program

This webinar paints a compelling picture of the importance of executive onboarding in an organization. You will be introduced to OPM's government wide executive onboarding framework and the steps that are critical to developing and implementing a successful formal executive onboarding program from pre-boarding through the first year. OPM will also present a unique product to the Federal sector, the New Leaders Onboarding Assessment --- an assessment designed help government manager and executives more quickly assimilate into new organizations. The New Leaders Onboarding Assessment was developed and offered to agencies through OPM's Human Resources Solutions division.

Thursday, July 26, 2012, 11AM – 12PM PST: Real World Training Design

Despite the assumptions of most instructional design methodologies, your training events don’t happen in a neat little "bubble." And neither does your design process. What are some of the most common pitfalls and contraints? How do you navigate them for the results your organization replies on? In this webcast, author, speaker, and real-world designer Jenn Labin presents some of the most common challenges training designers face, plus solutions to keep your project moving forward.

Tuesday, July 31, 2012, 10AM – 11AM PST: Effective Manager Training and Education – Building a Foundation for Organizational Success

Over half of all newly promoted managers fail in their roles within two years. We often assume our top performers are instantly ready for the more complex demands of management and supervision. Success for both new managers and their teams depends on support, development, and a solid approach to setting clear management expectations. Join Stacey Harris VP of Research and Advisory Services at Brandon Hall Group, and Chris Osborn of BizLibrary as they talk about the evolving set of demands and competencies all of our managers need, and they will share research and key practices for preparing both current and future managers for success.  

Wednesday, August 1, 2012, 10AM – 11AM PST: Story-Based eLearning: Antidote to Boring Programs

According to Mark Zuckerburg (Facebook CEO), “Our lives are made up of stories – that is why we provide ‘TIMELINE’ in Facebook because we help you tell your life-stories”. From Confucius to Zuckerburg, people learn from each other by sharing experiences and stories. Nowadays, this fact becomes increasingly significant with the advent and continuous development of mobile learning, on-the-job learning support and communities of learners. The challenge has been how to design learning points that are story-driven to help learners learn instantly. In this session, learn how to use the power of story dynamics, both telling and listening, as antidotes to boring eLearning programs. A free pre-webinar study kit that includes white papers, demos and examples is available for this session.

Thursday, August 2, 2012, 10AM – 11AM PST: Gamify Your Training: Use Gamification to Increase Employee Engagement and Improve Feedback

Half of all office workers use Facebook at work. Why? Because it's far more satisfying and rewarding than the vast majority of the tasks we're given during the workday. Facebook has a highly engaged audience for the same reasons we enjoy watching football, playing video games or gambling at a casino. The process is called Gamification and you may already be using several game mechanics now. Gamification is the application of game mechanics and game-thinking in non-game environments to increase fun and engagement. This webinar will explore how specific mechanics influence behavior and how you can add them to your own training programs.

Tuesday, August 7, 2012, 12:30PM – 1:30PM PST: Interactivity, Games and Gamification: Creating Engaged Learners

Based on the bestselling learning book, “The Gamification of Learning and Instruction” this session introduces, defines, and describes the concepts of gamification, games for learning and interactivity. It then dissects the elements of games and describes how they can be applied to the design and development of interactive learning.  The presentation is based on solid research including peer-reviewed results from dozens of studies that offer insights into why game-based thinking and mechanics makes for vigorous learning tools. Moving beyond the theoretical considerations, the presentation explores three methods for designing interactive learning based on concepts from games.

Tuesday, August 14, 2012, 10AM – 11AM PST: Informal Learning and Social Media: Upskilling for 21^st Century Training

New tools for and ideas about learning are bringing in a new age for training and development practitioners. We now have real means of extending our reach, learners who can identify and satisfy their own learning needs, and opportunities to support workplace learning and performance like we’ve never had before. This session provides an overview of some 21st century skills we’ll need to develop to stay current and viable in a rapidly changing, but more learning-focused, time. 

Wednesday, August 29, 2012, 9AM – 10AM PST: Demonstrating Executive Reporting Solutions for L&D

This webinar will provide both strategic and tactical information about reporting L&D results to business executives. Examples of reports, scorecards and dashboards will be demonstrated. As well, you will review three classifications of expertise that exists to support an organizations’ desire to advance its own executive reporting. A review of these consultative solutions will provide insight into the depth and breadth of resources that exist to fully support a practitioners desire to improve upon the metrics provided to the business.

Free Webinars for June

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Aids and tools will include: 

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

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

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

Ray will explain how to:

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