Content about Computing

May 16, 2013
Best Practices: How to Be a Great Bosshole

What should your Bosshole curriculum teach? First, Bossholes must be taught how to capture any and all critical information and keep it to themselves. Sharing information is a sign of weakness.

By Neal Goodman, Ph.D.

We all have heard that being a great Bosshole is not genetic but learned. Still, I am certain that one day an MRI or some genetic research is going to find a malevolent gene or brain defect that causes BAD (Bosshole Abusiveness Disorder).

May 16, 2013
How-To: Collect Data to Create Great Training

Incorporate a stakeholder analysis into the planning stage of the training needs analysis. It can add critical intelligence about politics and logistics—and can transform your effort from “so what?” to “must have.”

By Ross Tartell

Most of us have had the disappointing experience of working hard to collect data, analyze it, and then present the results to lukewarm levels of reception. In this highly competitive and cost-constrained market, great data is not enough to build the management commitment and sponsorship so critical to training success.

Wendy Heckelman of WLH Consulting points out that the success of any data collection process depends on three interrelated factors:

May 15, 2013
Interpersonal Networking Skills Make Leaders More Effective

Your people’s—especially your leaders’—interpersonal networks are vital to organizational success. Technology-based communications systems will only take you so far; ultimately it comes down to the development of trusting relationships among colleagues.

By Michael Leimbach, Ph.D., Vice President, Global Research and Development, Wilson Learning Worldwide

Managing and leading in today’s organizations is growing more difficult. More products are coming to market faster, partnerships among companies in different industries are increasing, global expansion has created huge multinational companies, and trends toward matrix management and cross-functional teams are accelerating.

May 1, 2013
Dell Inc.’s Customer Mindset Program

Many organizations struggle to help their teams learn how to emotionally connect with their customers on the right level. Dell Inc.’s solution: Its Consumer/Small-Medium-Business (CSMB) Sales Training team partnered with the company’s Services training team to implement a training solution deployed globally to 17,000 employees across 26 sites in eight languages to improve the customer Net Promoter Score (NPS).

Edited by Margery Weinstein

April 24, 2013
Make the Most of Your Talent

The estimated cost of actively disengaged employees in the United States alone is $400 billion to $500 billion per year. “Take Charge of Your Talent” goes right to the heart of the problem with a fresh solution: tapping employee self-motivation to create authentic engagement and enduring value.

By Don Maruska and Jay Perry

The world belongs to the talented, and that means you.

Whether you’re the new kid in a cubicle, the boss in the executive suite, or you run your own business, you have huge potential for greater productivity and fulfillment. Even very high performers in excellent organizations—large and small, for profit and nonprofit—report that 30 to 40 percent of their talent is untapped. And that’s only the talent they know about. It doesn’t capture what they haven’t discovered yet.

April 19, 2013
Training: Making the First Day Count

By making new employees feel like part of the team from the first day onward, ensuring that they understand how their efforts fit into the company’s operation, and continuously soliciting feedback and improving training programs, companies can gain a distinct competitive edge.

By Jeanne O’Connor, Human Resource Manager, Billtrust

“You never get a second chance to make a good first impression.”

How many times have these 12 threadbare words been preached to job-seekers? More importantly, how many companies look in the mirror when uttering them—particularly on that day when a new hire first reports for work?

April 3, 2013
Training Today: Navigating an ADA Leave of Absence

Employers are asking when, why, and how much leave must be provided as an Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) accommodation.

By Martha J. Cardi, JD, Reed Group Chief Compliance Officer, and Megan G. Holstein, J.D., Reed Group Senior Counsel, Compliance and Employment Law

An employee’s request for a leave of absence as an accommodation under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) poses Human Resource (HR) challenges. The EEOC is pursuing violations of employers’ ADA obligations, obtaining multi-million dollar consent decrees against employers for absence policies that violate the ADA. Employers are asking when, why, and how much leave must be provided as an ADA accommodation.

March 14, 2013
Supercompetent Speaking: Do You Need a Speaking Coach?

Being a good presenter is a developed skill, not an inborn talent, so a private coach may provide the edge you’ve been looking for—especially for newer presenters. However, even experienced speakers should work with a speaking coach to help iron out any wrinkles in your presentation style.

 

By Laura Stack, MBA, CSP

February 21, 2013
Top 20 Things to Negotiate for When Terminated from a Job

Being terminated is one of the most stressful events in an adult’s life. But if you get your head in the game and learn to negotiate your best deal, you will be able to move on with confidence. When you review the termination package, depending on your level in the organization, make sure you consider these 20 items to be included.

By Suzanne Kleinberg

So you have been terminated. Assuming you haven’t been fired for just cause, your (soon-to-be- ex-) employer has handed you with an envelope with a termination package. What do you do now?

Firstly, do not sign anything until you have had a couple of days to get over the shock and humiliation. Don’t succumb to pressure from your employer to sign it during your termination meeting. They are not allowed to coerce you to agree to anything. It would not be binding as you are signing under duress.

February 19, 2013
How Do YOU Think?

And can you think better for better results? Training magazine partnered with Pearson TalentLens to see how a thinking assessment can pave the way to better decisions, better problem-solving, and better performance for training professionals.

By Judy Chartrand, Ph.D., Chief Scientist, Pearson TalentLens

February 12, 2013
Where Does the Customer Experience Begin?

When discussing customer service and sales, have your team brainstorm all the touch points your customer can experience. List these on small strips of paper and create a paper chain. Next, review your customer service surveys and identify the “strong” and “weak” links in the chain. End the activity with an action planning session on how to strengthen the weak links, and how to reinforce and maintain the strong links.

By Norma Jarman, Training Account Manager, Signature Worldwide

Many business operators may believe the customer experience begins when the customer arrives at your place of business. However, in reality, the customer experience begins when a customer decides he or she needs a specific service or item you provide.

January 17, 2013
How to Create a Culture of Self-Learning

When it comes to the workforce, motivated, top performers always find a way to access the knowledge and develop the skills they need to be successful. Here’s how to infuse this drive into an organization’s workforce, emphasizing the importance of corporate education by creating a culture of self-learning across the entire employee population.

By Dan Carusi, Vice President, Global Education, Deltek

January 8, 2013
Is V-Learning Better Than C-Learning?

While the research is fuzzy regarding differences between virtual learning and classroom learning, it is clear about the impact and value of learning that utilizes multiple delivery approaches. Studies have shown that when you carefully match the learning outcomes of individual program components to different delivery methods, the results of that learning are superior to any one delivery method alone.

By Michael Leimbach, Ph.D., Wilson Learning

As a provider of both classroom-based learning programs (c-learning) and programs delivered virtually (v-learning), we often are asked by our clients which is better at producing the desired learning and performance outcomes.

November 27, 2012
Best Use of Games for Learning

Games provide an opportunity for people to engage deeply in a learning environment, and offer motivation for behavior changes. If managed well, learning games can go beyond learning and into talent management and workforce development.

“May the odds be ever in your favor”—The Hunger Games

November 1, 2012
Case Study: Accelerating New Employee Productivity at Savvis, A CenturyLink Company

Savvis’ Global Learning and Development team was able to design an onboarding program that would quickly integrate and educate new employees while also building champions for the process within the business. So it wasn’t doing something to the organization; it was creating a program with the organization.

When Jim Sokolowski arrived at Savvis Communications in 2010 to begin as director of Global Learning and Leadership Development, the company was experiencing double-digit growth, along with a change in senior leadership that brought a renewed commitment to human capital as a strategic enabler and competitive advantage. The challenge was to effectively build the organization’s learning function from the ground up. Taking on such an effort brought up the question of where to start as there were plenty of obvious places that demanded attention.

October 19, 2012
ETS Department Case Study: Training in the Huddle

Two learning and change facilitators trained three times as many staff on customer service skills using daily 15-minute “huddle training” sessions in place of a two-hour class. After completing their rounding and assessments, they found that their “chunking” approach not only produced the same performance results but that the success stories surpassed those from the two-hour class.

By Patricia B. Thurgood, and Fran Klene, BS, MS, Learning and Change Facilitators, Indiana University Health

October 10, 2012
Mobile Content: The Big Picture

People who use mobile devices have specific on-the-job needs that rarely align with traditional long-term learning scenarios. When we use these sources, we most often are looking for information we can use to determine a new action plan to help us in an immediate situation. That means we need to rethink how we position content and job duties for mobile devices.

By Chad Udell

Mobile learning is a large area unto itself. Just like e-learning, m-learning can be delivered in many different ways. E-learning delivery modes include traditional narrative and presentational learning delivery, scenario-based training, soft skills training, games, and software simulation. Although m-learning is less mature than e-learning, it, too, can be delivered via differing modes.

September 28, 2012
Best Practices: The Avatars Are Coming

E-learning has faced a backlash due to poor execution—learners being forced to sit through the equivalent of PowerPoint slides of information on their own. The critical missing element has been human-to-human knowledge transfer and particularly an environment in which colleagues can interactively learn together. Enter training via virtual reality.

By Neal Goodman, Ph.D.

September 28, 2012
Left to My Own Devices

Apparently I’m in the minority when it comes to our love affair with technology. It seems most people can’t put it on the back burner, even for a brief time. Interestingly enough, though, this use of personal devices for work can lead to problems, particularly security problems.

 

September 28, 2012
View from the Top

 

Based on a tragic Mt. Everest climb, the Leadership and Team Simulation: Everest V2 aims to teach leadership and team dynamics.

By Lorri Freifeld

Companies such as FedEx, The Hartford, and Union Pacific offer some of their leaders the opportunity to climb Mt. Everest. But the trek does not require parkas, ice axes, or karabiners. Nor will participants feel the least bit cold.

They must, however, make life-and-death decisions about who gets how much oxygen, correctly calculate the weather when the weather station is knocked out, and determine what to do when one of the team begins to experience hypothermia.

September 20, 2012
How to Be a Great Manager When You Have 57 Other Things to Do

Being a great manager takes time and dedication. But while it seems difficult to believe, you actually can get MORE than 57 things done if you know how to manage your team effectively. The key is finding the time. Here are 10 things you can do every day to be the leader people want to follow.

By Brad Karsh, President, JB Training Solutions

“Time is the quality of nature that keeps events from happening all at once. Lately, it doesn’t seem to be working.”

It’s not easy managing people—especially when stress levels are up and you have 57 other urgent things to do. No matter the circumstances, being a great manager takes time and dedication. But let’s get real: You literally have no time to spare!

August 28, 2012
Using Virtual Worlds for Impact

Virtual learning environments provide a safe location for real-time feedback and practice. But creating an immersive learning environment that has real value can seem overwhelming for many learning organizations. Find out how KFC and The Nuclear Regulatory Commission successfully implemented virtual learning environments and the business impact they reaped.

Few learning professionals would argue the educational value of virtual learning environments. They provide a safe location for real-time feedback and practice. But creating an immersive learning environment that has real value can seem overwhelming for many learning organizations, especially with restrictions on time and resources.

August 23, 2012
Best Practices for Collaborative Software Training

Traditionally, software trainers have focused on how a particular software package works. But to be effective, training for collaborative software must extend beyond the how to also incorporate the who, what, when, where, and why.

By Ricky Spears, Senior Instructor and Director of Training, SharePoint Solutions

August 10, 2012
Losing It in One Easy Presentation

Author Bill Lane has seen only a few a careers destroyed at senior management levels by awful presentation skills. But he has seen more careers destroyed, or set back, as a consequence of one poorly prepared, rambling, artless, and useless presentation. Find out what NOT to do when it comes to presentations.

By Bill Lane

I have seen only a few a careers destroyed at senior management levels by awful presentation skills. But I have seen more careers destroyed, or set back, as a consequence of one poorly prepared, rambling, artless, and useless presentation.

Here’s how to do it—how to “Lose It” in one business presentation:

August 8, 2012
3 Ways to Unleash Someone’s Potential

The best things you can do to facilitate someone else’s success go beyond addressing their skills, behaviors, habits, and mindsets. Unleashing potential in others is about three things: seeing them for who they can become, holding them accountable to that vision, and then walking the walk yourself.

By Rory Vaden

I study successful people for a living. I’m fascinated by what makes them tick, and the behaviors and habits that drive them to achieve great things while the rest of us settle for mediocrity. I use the insights gained over the years to help other people become more successful, and have learned that the best things you can do to facilitate someone else’s success go beyond addressing their skills, behaviors, habits, and mindsets. Unleashing potential in others is about three things: