Magazine Articles

By Bruce Tulgan “Leadership development” may sound better, but our research shows that what’s missing in the repertoires of 9 out of 10 leaders is consistent practice of the old-fashioned basics of management. There is so much work to be done by training professionals:

>> Rosetta Stone acquired Seattle-based Livemocha, one of the world’s largest online language-learning communities, for $8.5 million in cash. Livemocha features a robust and extensible cloud-based learning platform and a community of more than 16 million members.

>> Third-party logistics provider LeanCor launched LeanCor Academy, an online professional training and education program. Facilitated in a virtual classroom, the first course, “Lean Leadership: Building the Lean Culture,” is broken down into 16 one-hour self-paced modules, each followed by a knowledge assessment and application work.

When Seattle-based work-force consulting company PeopleFirm was first recognized as one of the fastest growing companies in the state, all employees received iPads engraved with a personal thank you. The newest team members, some of whom had only been with the company for a month, were shocked. But this was all about rewarding the team for their outstanding efforts. Tenure, role, or level didn’t matter. Being part of the PeopleFirm team is what counted.

>> Panopto announced the latest version of its e-learning and video platform solution:Panopto 4.3. New features include failsafe recording, social enablement (including rich comments, community ratings, and video bookmarks), and a scalable platform (per-user analytics and an IT admin dashboard).

Edited by Margery Weinstein Last year, Caesars Entertainment Corporation was facing stagnant customer service scores on weekly and quarterly surveys, the metric that determines success of customer loyalty and satisfaction. Each quarter and annually the organization strives for a 3 percent shift of non-A to A scores on customer service surveys year-over-year. Ingrained customer service behaviors helped keep the scores near the same level as the previous year, yet improvement to meet the goal of continuous improvement was becoming a challenge.

By Bob Pike CSP, CPAE, CPLP Fellow How long should training be? Almost every time I lead a seminar in the U.S. I get feedback that trainers are being pressured to deliver training faster. If, as a trainer, you believe it will take three days to develop the needed skills and knowledge, you’re asked to deliver it in two. If it can be done in two, then do it in one. If one, then a half-day should do it. If in an hour, then don’t you just have a pill people can take? In the U.S., it seems, it always will take too much time.

By Tony O’Driscoll Last month, I was sitting in a leadership development program listening to two talented executives share personal stories about how they had learned to lead. As they shared their leadership lessons with the participants, I noticed that one word kept coming up over and over again. That word was “CONTEXT.” “Before I tell you this story, let me set some context,” one said. “To understand why I made the decision I did, it is important for me to give you some more context,” said the other.

By Stacey Harris, VP of Research, Brandon Hall Group

The woman who checked me in at the Walt Disney World Coronado Springs Resort for the Training 2013 Conference & Expo last month was friendly, courteous, and helpful. She handed me my room key, drew the route to my room on the map, told me where I could get food and go swimming, and asked if I had any questions. I cheerfully (and, it turned out, mistakenly) replied, “No, I’m good.”