May / June 2013

By Anchalee Ngampornchai, Ph.D., and Jonathan Adams, Ed.D.

By Roy Saunderson As a child I loved going to the library and discovering new books that challenged my thinking. One book that stood out for me was “The Power of Positive Thinking” by the late Dr. Norman Vincent Peale. While it has a religious foundation to the principles highlighted in the book, it was the introduction for me to thinking more positively about my life and especially my work.

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).

By Bob Pike CSP, CPAE, CPLP Fellow As I write this column, I’m working in Malaysia and Singapore. Trainers in this part of the world are eager to know how we do what we do in the United States. They are eager to improve and will invest the time it takes to acquire new skills and knowledge. Senior management made this quite clear at the beginning of my stay.

By Jane Bozarth In every group there are a minority of people who find better solutions to the challenges at hand…even though they have access to exactly the same resources as the rest of the group, their uncommon practices or behaviors allow them to flourish.”—Jerry Sternin

By Damian McKinney Early in Walmart’s history, most store managers began their careers working at the register or another entry-level position. Through a gradual process of working their way up the corporate ladder, these employees were promoted to store manager in seven to 11 years. This process served the company and its employees well, providing a secure predictable career path and producing knowledgeable, loyal people at the middle-management level.

By Jason Forrest

By Tony O’Driscoll In the latter half of 2012, my colleagues at Duke Corporate Education and I conducted interviews with 36 CEOs from around the globe to better understand what it takes to lead in an increasingly connected and complex business context.

By Ajay M. Pangarkar, CTDP, CPA, CMA, and Teresa Kirkwood, CTDP A lot of rhetoric is swirling about how to effectively validate “learning” effectiveness…and we believe much of it is misleading advice. No one is disputing that learning must be effective and accountable. However, don’t confuse these two distinctive requirements. To communicate learning effectiveness to business leaders, you must clearly define your initiative’s “validity” relative to how it aligns with Kirkpatrick’s Level 3 and 4 expectations.

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: