MindLeaders: Fueling the Learning Revolution

New e-learning courses on cross-cultural business, PMP 2009, Visio, and more

New courses have arrived in the MindLeaders course catalog! The new topics include the latest PMP certification, tips for doing global business with Chinese and Indian companies, how to use Visio 2007, and the Security+ 2008 and MCTS 70-432 certification tests.

• CompTIA Security+ 2008 (SY0-201)
• Doing Business in China: A Cultural Approach
• Doing Business in India: A Cultural Approach
• Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Maintenance MCTS 70-432
• Project Management Professional Certification 2009
• Visio 2007

Our two "Doing Business in..." courses are specially designed to help people get information fast before a business trip, conference call, or any other kind of meeting with a Chinese or Indian company. Each of these courses offer fast tips for meetings, business meals, and general protocol.

Each lesson begins with a video introduction to the most important facts; students can watch only the video to get the information as quickly as possible, or can go on into the lesson to get more details about the customs and etiquette involved.

If you have a subscription to MindLeaders courses, these are already in your course lists. Please let us know any comments or suggestions that you have!

Are We Teaching the Critical Skills?

I read an interesting blog post from Seth Godin the other day. It was written several years ago, but nothing has changed that would invalidate the content. In it he describes a three hour flight where he watched a guy write a report using hunt and peck, and then came home to find out his third grader is being drilled in how to write proper cursive.

The argument: Cursive is a useless skill in today’s world. Typing, on the other hand, is a critical skill.

Of course, we’ve always taught cursive in school. And that’s the problem. It’s been a long time since a school curriculum has been created from scratch. If we were doing that now would cursive be so high on the list?

To effectively train our organizations and be viewed as essential to business success (vs. drilling how to write proper cursive), learning programs have to be really good at teaching the critical skills. What skills are most fundamental to your organization’s success this year? How are you filling the gap?

How Do You Facilitate Informal Learning?

According to a recent article in Training Industry Quarterly, only 20% of employee learning takes place in a formalized setting. The other 80% occurs informally on-the-job. Formal learning still has a place within corporate learning programs, especially for teaching employees brand new skills. However, understanding and capitalizing on how informal learning is increasingly important. The article places most informal learning in three different categories:

·        On Demand Learning, which includes e-learning, simulations, books and reference materials

·        Social Learning, which includes workshops, breakout sessions, wikis, quality councils, blogs, and instant messaging

·        Embedded Learning, which include job aids, help systems, reference cards, and online FAQs

A couple of things that all of these have in common:

·        They are learner-driven. Learners decide the medium of choice, the pace, the content covered, who they converse with, and where the learning happens.

·        Technology enables and formalizes informal learning. According to a recent article on CFO.com, the use of social networks and wikis within companies doubled between 2007 and 2008.

·        Most informal learning is lower-cost than traditional formal learning programs.

·        Each category has an on demand element. Wikis can be searched. Job aids and FAQs can be referenced on the fly. Instant messaging allows for immediate answers.

Informal learning will continue to happen within all organizations, and technology is expanding the ways employees can share information. The challenge for learning organizations is to formally acknowledge and facilitate informal learning within their company’s culture. How is your learning organization formalizing this valuable transfer of knowledge?

Succession Planning Best Practices

My Dad retired from 38 years of work this week. Our family attended the dinner his co-workers had for him, listened to their stories about Dad, and shared his excitement. As we celebrated, I looked around the room and noticed the age of his co-workers. Many of them looked like they were around his age. I asked him afterwards if his company was prepared for the boomer exodus it was about to experience as the others in his generation followed him out the door. He didn’t think so.

Based on the trends Beth saw at ASTD, his company isn’t alone. Boomer retirements are becoming a pressing issue, as companies scramble to retain important organizational knowledge and refill leadership ranks. Unfortunately, most leadership development programs or succession plans won’t be sufficient to meet the need. Bersin and Associates recently completed a research study on high impact succession planning, and a key finding was that best-practice organizations are three times more effective at achieving key business measures than their peers. What are some best practices?

• Succession planning must be aligned with strategic business planning
• Succession planning is about more than the executives, technical and other key contributor roles matter. Yet, fewer than 40% of companies include mid-level managers and barely more than 10% include first line supervisors
• Succession planning cannot be successful unless it is properly linked to employee development programs. For some assistance in growing your leadership pipeline, check out MindLeaders Leadership Roadmap and “Leadership in Crisis” whitepaper.
• Succession planning cannot be viewed as an HR exercise, top level executives must be involved in the process.

What do you think? Is your organization ready for boomer retirements? Are these best practices being used? What others should be added?

Sales training roadmap lists resources to build sales skills/competencies

Successful sales is about more than just following a sales process correctly. The best sales staff use many interpersonal and networking skills as they shepherd prospects into customers.

MindLeaders offers 2,500 courses and 1,000 books. Our roadmaps break down the skills that are used for important roles, and then recommends courses that will strengthen each of those skills. Each roadmap also includes a list of some recommended titles from our Reference Library.

Our new roadmap tackles the skills and competencies used in sales. We break these down into four major categories:

• The sales process
• Cultivating new business
• Finding solutions with the prospect
• Closing business

The MindLeaders Sales Roadmap PDF is available for free download. We also have roadmaps on Leadership skills and Project Management skills. Please let me know any comments you have, or if you have any topics you'd especially like to see a roadmap on.

ASTD 2009 Thoughts and Themes

The American Society for Training & Development's annual conference wrapped up last week in Washington, DC. As always, it was a crazy-busy time of talking to attendees at the MindLeaders booth in the Expo and attending some sessions to hear some latest and greatest thoughts on the industry. I had a great time!

Now, with some recovery time under my belt, a few thoughts have begun to settle to the top in my brain. For those of you went or would just like to pretend you did:

Just in case you weren't sure: The economy is still down
The attendance and expo floor testified that the economy is still hitting us all hard. I don't know what the attendance numbers were compared to years past, but the crowd felt a good bit lighter. Sessions still had good attendance, and the people that made it had extra motivation to be there, so the overall effect was kind of a "conference concentrate" - just add water!

Sadly, there were obviously some expo businesses that pulled out, too, as evidenced by the booth-sized "lounges" that dotted the expo floor. From the silver-lining club: it was nice to have some extra chairs to rest tired feet.

Recovery? Any time now, please.

This year's hot topic: Baby boomer retirement
Every year at the MindLeaders booth, there seems to be one phrase that makes people stop in their tracks and want to talk more. Every year, it's a different phrase. This year's phrase was "Baby Boomer retirement." We've all known the retirement wave has been coming for some time, but it must really be at our doorsteps now.

And to pass along the resources I was handing out like crazy to the people who were focused on this, check out the MindLeaders Leadership Roadmap and our new "Leadership in Crisis" white paper for some of our best thinking about ways to build up the next wave of leaders and manage that succession pipeline.

Is there a technology divide among trainers?
This is another topic I've seen the roots of for a few years now, but this was the conference that some people (mostly my techie-lovin' friends and contacts) really started talking about it: are we starting to see a serious technology divide in the training industry?

At one end of the spectrum, we have people who enthusiastically embrace and adopt each new technological advance that comes along: social media, virtual environments, Web 2.0, online classrooms, you name it, they'll try it. At the other end remains a sizeable and adamant contingent who rely on classrooms and manuals to do their teaching and view technological advances with suspicion and/or outright disdain.

Personally, probably obviously, I tend toward that techie-lovin' side of the spectrum. MindLeaders as a company, even though we're all about pioneering new ways to bring technology into training, does a lot of careful study to make sure that the technology we're using is stuff that is readily-accessible for our clients and can bring proven value, an excellent middle ground to strive for.

There will always be a spectrum of positions to this question, but this was the first year that I started to worry about that steadfastly non-techie group, especially because ASTD itself seems to only be tentatively addressing this issue. Are we risking the industry being branded with a "luddite" label and being left behind?

All three of these themes aren't fully-baked, but I wanted to throw the lot out to hopefully stir some deep-thinkin'. What were your impressions from the conference, or if you didn't go, what have you seen from your own vantage point?

What’s Your Most Valuable Performance Management Tool?

Performance management is a hot topic in today's HR market. IDC predicts that performance management software and services will reach $2.55 billion by 2012. Even in today's downturned economy, many companies are evaluating and investing in performance management processes and systems.

Couple that information with an interesting article in the Wall Street Journal that advocates eliminating the traditional annual performance evaluation as a performance management tool. Why? A few of the major points are below:

·        Pay is usually determined by market forces and/or a predetermined salary range linked to the job title, not performance. The review meeting is used to justify these pre-determined decisions, employees know it, and so it is not a useful performance management tool.

·        Performance critiques are subjective, with the exception of easily measured items like sales numbers. Even 360 degree reviews bring in politics and agendas, only anonymously.

·        A generic performance review form doesn’t consider the unique mix of strengths and weaknesses employees bring to the job. In addition, using the same performance rating scale for different job functions is not useful for effective performance management.

·        The last place most employees will go when they need performance improvement advice is their boss because they fear the “shortcoming” will come back to haunt them. Performance reviews actually impede employee development because of this dynamic.

The assertion that employee development is impeded is particularly interesting, given that companies want managers to optimize their staff. Another impediment to employee development is the frequency with which performance evaluations are given. Annual performance management conversations aren’t sufficient to meet most organizational goals or employee development needs.

What do you think? Are performance reviews a valuable tool for performance management? Do they help or hinder employee development?

Attending ASTD 2009? So are we!

MindLeaders (and I!) will be at the ASTD 2009 International Conference and Expo in Washington, DC on May 31 - June 3. Our booth number is #2233. Please stop by and say hello, or send me a comment/email if you'd like to meet any other time.

If you're fairly new to conventions like this, or would just like some new ideas, check out my post last year about Tips for getting the most out of your ASTD (or any trade show!) experience.

Maximize your leadership development and succession planning efforts

Are you happy with your leadership pipeline? Do you have a succession plan that will cover the changing needs of your business? Are you ready for the wave of retirements that's coming?

If you answered no to any of those questions, chances are your leadership development and succession planning programs aren’t providing the value they could. Properly trained leaders are more likely to make tactical decisions that will increase the value of the business and ensure ongoing success. Effective leadership development reduces attrition of outstanding performers and raises the capabilities of everyone in the talent pool.

Our new white paper “Leadership in Crisis: How to Maximize Leadership Development and Succession Planning” will help you capitalize on your leadership development and succession planning efforts by examining the following questions:

• How are poor leadership development practices costing your company?
• What makes an effective leadership development program?
• Are star performers the best place to look for future leaders?
• What do you need to teach your talent pool to ensure a robust leadership pipeline and succession plan?

Download Leadership in Crisis: How to Maximize Leadership Development and Succession Planning and let us know what you think!

PILAR Award open for nominations

The 2009 MindLeaders Performance Improvement and Learning Achievement Recognition (PILAR) awards are open for nominations - have you submitted your company for recognition?

Award submissions - any award submissions, although I have a personal particular love for this one - are a great way to take stock of learning programs and how they're doing at achieving their goals. Of course, they do this while also offering a chance for some useful recognition of yourself and your work.

Nominations are open until August 31, and will be awarded at another great Award Dinner event.

The award categories are:

• Best First Year Program
• Best Marketing Program
• Best ‘Blended Learning’ Solution
• Most Innovative Channel Partner
• Best Measured Results or Impact on an Organization
• Founders Award for Overall Program Excellence

Hope you'll think about applying; the 2009 PILAR PDF will give you all the information about the award and the application process.