Magazine Articles

By Lester Stephenson It is becoming increasingly common for training classes to have students from all over the world. But it is impossible to adapt teaching styles and classroom culture to a student from India when sitting next to him is one from Vietnam, behind him is one from Iraq, and nearby is someone from Mexico and another from Atlanta, GA. Throw in language issues, and the task facing the instructor can be overwhelming—even intimidating.

By Lisa Green, Training Manager, HRS and H&B Operations, at the Paychex Training and Development Center Kelly Schnupp never thought participating in a three-month program to enhance her training skills would have such a powerful and immediate impact on the company’s bottom line, but her experience with the Paychex Train-the-Trainer Partnership has left her pleasantly surprised.

Last month, I regretfully had to have a 70-foot-tall, stately maple tree removed from my front lawn. Unfortunately, it had fallen victim to a condition called girdling roots, in which the roots grew around the base of the trunk and choked off vital nutrients and water. A few weeks later, I noticed a hint of green peeking out from the mound of mulch. I cleared away the dirt and found a small sprout growing in the spot.

By Lorri Freifeld

By Constance Melrose Wall Street may not be fashionable in some circles, but here’s one statement that’s tough to dispute: Wall Street professionals know how to negotiate a good deal. Last year, even in relatively lean times, 56 percent of Wall Street financial pros reported earning a higher bonus than they earned the year before.

By Margery Weinstein A changing mindset combined with changing technology is driving the use of games and simulations, says Karl M. Kapp, a learning and technology expert and professor of instructional technology at Bloomsburg University in Bloomsburg, PA. “People are becoming more open to using games and simulations for learning, and, at the same time, the technologies are making the development of games and simulations easier and faster than a mere five years ago.”

By Margery Weinstein In an effort to continuously improve member service levels, AAA – The Auto Club Group faced a learning challenge: It needed a simulation that would address the specific service issues its customer-facing employees handle. The company decided the best way to meet this learning need was to develop its own custom simulation, says AAA – The Auto Club Group Vice President and Chief Learning Officer Daniel Hill.

By Margery Weinstein When Cox Enterprise’s Cox Leadership Program (CLP) needed an action-learning simulation to support its curriculum, the company turned to PressTime, a computer-driven behavioral simulation created and distributed by Discovery Learning. After observing the simulation at a company in Canada, Susan Edwards, Cox’s business effectiveness and executive development consultant, decided it met the leadership program’s learning objectives.

Some 310 training professionals gathered at Training’s first Learning 3.0 Conference in Chicago last month to discover the industry’s next transformation and how it will affect their organizations. They heard from innovative thinkers on topics such as “When Games Invade Real Life and Gamify Work,” “Leveraging Social Media to Change the Enterprise,” “How the Brain Science of Attention Will Change the Way We Learn,” and “Cultivating the Imagination: Building Learning Environments for Innovation.”

A common misunderstanding of “informal learning” is that it can’t be intentionally designed, implemented, and measured. It can, in the form of Performance Support.