Show me the money!" has become the favorit...

Show me the money!" has become the favorite response from individuals who are asked to invest in workplace learning and performance. But to answer this call, you must move beyond reporting impact—you must get to the return on investment (ROI).

To calculate the ROI of a program, the first step is to identify its benefits. The benefits that translate to money are those that represent improvement in output, quality, cost, time, customer satisfaction, job satisfaction, work habits, and innovation. These benefits represent the program's business impact. To ensure this business impact is due to the program, a step to isolate the effects of the program is taken using any one of a variety of techniques.

The next step toward ROI is converting benefits to money. While most benefits can be converted to money, we often choose not to convert some—these are our intangible benefits. Once the intangibles are defined, the next step is to tabulate the fully loaded cost of the program. The final step is to compare the monetary benefits of the program to the costs and there you have it—ROI.

During this session you will learn to move from impact to ROI following these simple steps. Don't forget your calculator!



Patti Phillips is president and CEO of the ROI Institute, Inc. She is author and coauthor of a variety of books on measurement, evaluation, and return on investment, including "Beyond Learning Objectives" (ASTD, 2008), "Show Me the Money" (Berrett-Koehler, 2007), and "The Value of Learning" (Pfeiffer, 2007).

By Brian Remer



Want to jazz up your training, launch participants toward novel solutions, or analyze problems in greater depth? Try using metaphor. The most powerful gadget in your toolbox, metaphor can drive your point home and put your participants in the driver's seat of their own learning.

As a presenter, you can invent your own analogies to illustrate the training topic.

When you equate change management with swimming underwater, for example, you increase retention, make emotional connections, and help participants develop a common vocabulary associated with the topic.

But don't keep all the fun stuff to yourself. Invite your participants to invent their own metaphors. Here's my favorite metaphor maker. Give everyone a Chinese fortune cookie and have them create connections between their fortune and your training theme. Ask them to read their fortune adding the words, "...when dealing with change management," (or something equally appropriate to the topic) at the end. Along with the laughter, you'll be surprised at the new insights people are able to generate.

Used in the right context and at the right time, a variety of metaphor techniques can put participants in control of their learning by making your workshop both more memorable and personally relevant.



Brian Remer is a designer of interactive strategies for training, facilitation, and performance improvement. As the creative learning director of The Firefly Group, he ignites a spark of inspiration for collaboration, continuous learning, systems thinking, and serendipity.

By Dr. Peter Rizza



A breakthrough process now enables companies and training consultants to establish their own internal Training Factory. Using the ExpressTrain Suite of tools, trainers can automate the generation of multiple training and performance support materials from a single-source repository; structure core content by knowledge types; and define custom templates for training, reference, documentation, and assessment purposes. ExpressTrain relies on content reusability to create a rapid development and updating process. It comes with an ROI calculator to determine what savings can be realized by employing this approach. An ExpressTrain-Training Factory is better than outsourcing because it automatically transforms "learning content" into multiple formats, including instructor-led and Web-based training, e-learning, and performance support tools, from user manuals to quick reference guides and verification tools such as checklists, quizzes, and tests. And you can do this all in a matter of minutes, not months. Furthermore, the ExpressTrain Process is built on MS Office, so it easily can run on your desktop.



Dr. Peter J. Rizza, Jr., founder, president, and CEO, Princeton Center for Education Services, has more than 30 years of experience in technology-mediated instruction, with a special focus on learning models and knowledge transfer strategies. Dr. Rizza is also president of the Training Factory, Inc., and author of "A Models-Based Approach to Computer-Based Training Design and Development."

By Terence R. Traut



According to a variety of studies, many employees—good employees—don't feel they receive the coaching they need to improve performance. After surveying 2,600 U.S. workers, New York-based Mercer Human Resource Consulting found that:

- Only one-fourth of employees indicate their managers coach them to improve performance.

- Forty-two percent say their manager gives them regular feedback on their performance.

- Just 29 percent say they are rewarded when they do a good job.

Developmental coaching offers managers a simple and effective mechanism to increase the morale, productivity, performance, and engagement of their employees.

Many coaching initiatives die under their own weight; the model is complex, the time required to coach is untenable, and the results are often counterproductive. Entelechy's Coaching for Performance model is different:

- The coaching model is simple, consisting of three questions asked by the coach and a process that encourages self-assessment.

- The coaching process puts the responsibility for development largely on the employee.

- Feedback—in the traditional sense of "Let me tell you what I think"—is all but eliminated, resulting in higher morale, greater buy-in, and sustained positive results.

- Dependency on the manager to pronounce "how am I doing" is reduced since the employee is encouraged to self-assess, provide analysis, determine better approaches, and identify next steps.



Terence R. Traut is the president of Entelechy, Inc., a company that helps organizations unlock the potential of their people through customized training programs in the areas of management, customer service, sales, and training. The company offers 40 customizable modules, training tools, and eGuides.

By Steve Willis



Hardly a day passes that we don't try to influence ourselves or others to do something new and different. Whether you're looking to improve your relationships with your direct reports or motivate your employees to demonstrate more concern for profitability, you continually are working on ways to exert influence.

And yet, despite the fact that we routinely try to help ourselves and others alter their behavior, few of us can articulate a model of what it takes to do so. It's time this changed.

In this Training 2009 presentation based on the new program, Influencer Training, and The New York Times best-selling book of the same title, "Influencer: The Power to Change Anything," you will learn to create rapid and sustainable change. You will journey from San Francisco to Thailand and meet influence masters who have made change not only achievable and sustainable, but inevitable. You'll find out why some managers increase productivity repeatedly and significantly—while others fail miserably.

The most important capacity you can hold is the capacity to influence behavior. Once you tap into the power of influence, you can begin to solve the problems you care about most—from the simplest to the most persistent, resistant, and profound challenges you can imagine.



Steve Willis is vice president of professional services at VitalSmarts, an innovator in corporate training and organizational performance. He has advised senior executives at a wide range of Fortune 500 companies, helping them to overcome significant challenges.

By Allison A.S. Wimms



Think about it. Have you ever taken time out of your busy schedule to attend "intensive" training only to find minimal substance? Or worse, have you ever developed an excellent preapproved curriculum only to have the client say it did not meet expectations?

What's happening here? What are we missing?

The answer is something we easily may overlook—we are ineffectively evaluating our work during its design. And here's why: The ADDIE (Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation, and Evaluation) model is flawed, and this deficiency results in programs that miss the mark.

"E" is neither a stand-alone phase nor does it receive enough attention. Yet its role in ensuring a program meets expectations is critical.

Evaluation must be considered in ways that go beyond traditional thinking. The instructional designer must think of evaluation not only as a way to measure the success of a program or the likes/dislikes of participants, but as a way to validate a plan and ensure that clients' training expectations are met—no question.

The critical role of evaluation throughout the ADDIE process requires significant consideration, and we need more than case studies, forms, and templates to do so. We need structure; we need a plan. We need instruction.



Allison A.S. Wimms is a senior training and development specialist at Johns Hopkins HealthCare LLC. She is coauthor of "Crossing the Great Divide: Program Development and the Four Levels," written with James D. Kirkpatrick, from which the above is excerpted.