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Buck Tradition & Bust a Few Paradigms

Sounds downright subversive, maybe even a wee bit scandalous does it not? Very likely, this title may imply behavior that is a little risky too. Personally, I think it is high time we view risk as a catalyst, not a restrainer...and that could be “too much caffeine” doing the talking. Seriously, it is time to act on the risks that threaten training as we know it. Please do not confuse passionate posturing of an idea with a radical rant, though what you read in this post has earmarks of both.…

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IQPC Interview on Change Leadership – Talent Management Summit Preview

This coming September, IQPC holds their next Talent Management Summit in Las Vegas, and I am honored to be a guest speaker on the topic "Change Leadership: When Change Management is Not Enough". Late last week, Katherine Mehr of IPQC, interviewed me for a podcast related to this breakout session that will post later in July. Of all the postings on my blog, the Change Leadership posting has proven to be one of the more frequently visited, so I thought posting the interview dialogue may also be of interest. Following…

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Social Learning – Confusion 2.0: Getting Beyond Campfires & Cavemen

I wrote earlier that Social Learning was so simple a caveman could do it...but not if he has to facilitate a virtual classroom event. We are way beyond campfires and cavemen with social learning when we inject a plethora of technology into the mix. Call it Confusion 2.0 if you are pre-disposed to label everything. I've promoted the concept of reaching learning readiness in the context of effective learning when technology is involved. Never has this been important than when trying to extract the most out of Social Learning. This…

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EPSS – In Pursuit of the Dynamic Learning Ecosystem

Sunday morning I stumbled over a post in one of the community groups I follow on LinkedIn. The question put to the community asked about the use of performance support. The author referenced hearing a lot of buzz lately about performance support, but there was not much evidence of success stories short of application to computer systems training. I had to agree, and I believe there is a purely business reason for that – it is called protecting competitive business advantage. (more…)

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Work & Learning Convergence: On a Collision Course

Competency. Urgency to perform flawlessly. Business risk. Sustainability. Pick whichever one of these strikes your fancy, but they all speak to what we hope effective training will deliver – avoid – and/or create in our workforce – meaningful and legitimate outcomes all. Unfortunately, we cannot realize these outcomes from the classroom or because of on-line training; rather, they manifest downstream from our training efforts - in the work context. Are we spending our time, resources, and energy in the right place? I am not convinced we are, and as a…

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Re-Thinking HR-based Training Organizations: A Break from Tradition?

I like the concept of “re-thinking” training organizations based in HR, and I say this from personal work history primarily based in the training space over the last thirty plus years. The blended perspective I have comes from working both inside and outside of HR in training organizations. I found them to have a very different focus. (more…)

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The False Promise of Training as a Driver of Performance

Certainly, this title may sound like blasphemy to some of us in the training business. On the other hand, it may be even more of a shock to those who depend upon those of us in the training business to drive performance in the organization. Following is a deceptively simple formula that illustrates why a successful training solution may render a false promise of improved performance: (more…)

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LMS Envy: The Love-Hate Relationship with Technology

In a recent dialog on the CLO-Network, we discussed why so many LMS owners were not happy with their systems - that there seemed to be a "disconnect" between what they envisioned they would own after GoLive and what they actually wound up owning. Why is there such a love-hate relationship with LMS (and other) technology? Why does it seem that someone else always has the better system? Truth is, "better" is a relative term. (more…)

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Change Leadership: When Change Management Is Not Enough

Ask any IT professional if they have a repeatable process for Change Management (CM) and you can expect an unequivocal “Yes we do!” as the response, and likely suffer a sideways glance wondering what motivated such a ridiculous question. Actually, they have no other choice when we consider the nature of Change in the scope of their IT world. Systems constantly change to meet new business demands, and/or software applications need frequent additions or modifications. Rigorous testing procedures, validation, and documentation are required. Timelines and project management accountabilities assigned, synchronized,…

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Training to Learning – The Impossible Shift

Now that title should generate a ripple or two on the pond, especially when I have been so vocal about the need for just such a shift. So…is this post a confession that I have changed my mind? Not quite. Not even. If anything, I am more passionate than ever, but over the years, I have gotten smarter about moving around obstacles that stifle momentum rather than fight through immovable walls of opposition or resistance. My new approach requires the application of marshal arts – judo – to be more…

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