As an instructional designer, most of my work consists of summarizing, condensing, and rephrasing existing data and materials. I do my best to make training projects more clear, memorable, and understandable for learners, so I am always seeking tools and technologies to assist me in the process. I recently came across infographics. At first glance, infographics seemed to meet many of my instructional design objectives, so my curiosity led me to do some deeper research. I found, surprisingly, what I thought was something new and innovative, was actually quite old and time-tested. What’s old is new What are infographics? Simply, they are visual representations of facts and figures, the union of information plus graphics. Around 1858, Florence Nightingale used what is sometimes known as the Nightingale’s Rose, or a Coxcomb chart, to convince Queen Victoria to improve conditions in military hospitals during the Crimean War by highlighting the death toll from diseases and wounds in blue, red, and black. Interestingly, an infographic-style cover was seen on a Scientific American volume in September 1914; the graphic depicted the number of trained troops by nationality in Europe, each represented by a picture sized to represent the relative number of troops of each nationality. In both of these cases, infographics made statistics clear and understandable. They told the story. Nurse Nightingale’s research received its funding. An instructional design tool From a learning and development perspective, infographics hold a lot of promise for rapid training development and can also lend new energy to instructor-led training presentations because a majority of people prefer to learn visually. Simply put, most people learn more when they can see what they are learning. As instructional designers, we could tap into this tendency by incorporating infographics into our materials to give learners a better understanding of what we are trying to teach them. My research uncovered some reasons infographics have had such staying power and how they can be applied to learning design. Infographics make big data accessible. Although an organization needs data, often in large amounts, to make informed business decisions, a spreadsheet full of numbers is not the most user-friendly format for most. Infographics make it easier to understand the context of the numbers. The visual data they contain has more impact. The human brain takes in the majority of information, some estimate up to 90% of it, visually. The Visual Teaching Alliance estimates our brains may process visual information up to 60,000 faster than text. Infographics have what it takes to stimulate us to learn. They help focus attention. When learners focus, they are more likely to remember and absorb the information. Infographics cut through the noise and learners pay more attention to the information. They are more likely to be shared. Infographics are more interesting and much more likely to be shared on social networks. This spreads information much further than a wordy document that takes longer and more energy to comprehend. Infographics are easy to create. A quick Google search turns up a wealth of existing, free PowerPoint templates to plug data into with just a few clicks. The learning curve for creating infographics is relatively small compared to many other technologies. If the longevity and proliferation of infographics are any indication of their usefulness and popularity, it seems as instructional designers, we should consider opportunities for adding them to our learning and development arsenal. More resources: Data Visualized: More on Teaching With Infographics, New York Times online: Education section Reaching the Visual Learner: Teaching Property Through Art by William C. Bradford PowerPoint Infographic Creation Basics by Desmond Wong

Organizations are increasingly dependent on the passion, creativity, energy and engagement of the workforce. Competitive advantage is no longer secured purely through the access to capital or information, but by having employees come up with creative and novel ways of solving clients’ problems. In order to achieve this, organizations are increasingly dependent on technical professionals - those expert employees in areas like finance, R&D, technology or engineering. In a recent TrainingIndustry.com webinar "Leading Technical Professionals", Fraser Marlow, head of research at GP Strategies’ BlessingWhite division, discussed the specific needs of technical professionals in terms of how they are led and how they learn. During the webinar Fraser discussed: Research findings and insights into the challenges of leading technical professionals from a joint study from GP Strategies and TrainingIndustry. Required skills and learning preferences of technical professionals and those who aspire to lead them. How to design learning initiatives for technical employees. Click here to listen to the the full webinar. As a follow up to the webinar, Fraser addressed questions in the following Q&A document: trainingindustry_gpstrategies_webcast_qanda.pdf

Billy Biggs, Director - Public Sector at GP Strategies, explains how to effectively implement a Millennial talent management program to attract and retain talent.

I recently had the pleasure of attending the ASTD International Conference and Exposition in Dallas, Texas. I wanted to take the time to share some of my personal insights. Several issues that I consider futuristic trends in Training and Development came up during the conference, including the following: Trends in global participation - the show had a significant presence of Asia and the poor presence of Africa and Latin America. Being that I am from Colombia, I hope to see more participation from Latin America in the future. Human evolution - the new communication and behavior formats in society that change exponentially through technology and different generations (from millennial to baby boomers) New learning technologies are helping to enable mobile and social learning and being applied to highly productive environments, as well as improving the ability to measure tangible and intangible results. Leadership Several sessions on Leadership were held that were well-received by the audience; this is an indication of the high demand for this important topic in personal and organizational development. The world perceives an imminent need of leaders with vision and sensitivity to handle generational changes, coaching, mentoring and reverse mentoring. A "Multiplier Leader" was one of the new and innovative terms from the conference. These leaders help their teams to develop their intelligence so they too can be successful leaders. Instructional Design The global need to increase productivity and competitiveness was prevalent throughout the event. Every company wants to have the best human capital, but the restrictions of time and money are becoming more stringent. For this reason, instructional design should be more effective in terms of customized content, using the minimum time required for learning. Innovation in the design of instructional materials marked a decisive trend. Neuroscience and cognitive processes of the human being are used as a starting point of learning and are now the basis of new developments. The trend to design fun games and simulators as part of training was reflected in the amount of sessions on creating cartoons, stories, games, music and performances of real cases. The art is involved in the further training. Training In a competitive economy, the challenge is to develop optimized and personalized learning programs. The programs will involve levels of knowledge and use technology, such as m-learning and blended learning, to train 24 hours a day. It was evident that to intensify virtual learning technologies, training should be combined with interactive technologies to improve performance and develop new processes for teaching in the workplace. Coaching and Mentoring Training across generations allows training in both directions. Traditional mentoring, where an experienced employee trains the new employee, is important, but reverse mentoring allows the new professional to train the experienced staff person in advanced technological issues. Reverse mentoring is on the rise based in the accelerated growth of today’s younger workforce and their dominance over the digital world. Customized Content This type of development requires more customer contact; assessments of the current situation of companies will allow the optimization of their investment in training and identify their essential gaps to be closed with a prioritized and optimal training plan. There comes a skill challenge for training professionals in the areas of consulting and support in these processes. ROI Global economic conditions, open markets and high competitiveness determine the need to show results in business performance from training provided to employees. New models of ROI were presented at the conference and set the direction of connecting the investment in training with the business KPIs. These results are managed with training scorecards. Mobile and Blended Learning The trend is to use these technologies for fundamental learning, self-learning and knowledge retention. Training materials are being developed for mobile technology where employees can access information relevant to their work, 24 hours, 7 days per week. Additionally, interactive technology allows for enhancing hands-on training. I have a subjacent question, and I leave it on the table for your reflection: What topics were missing from the conference? I think this question opens the door to innovation!

This whiteboard animation helps explain a new learning paradigm that is focused on blending role-based learning and collaborative learning to give employees the information and skills they need, when they want them and where they want them.

Joe Nasal, Senior Vice President of GP Strategies’ Energy Services Division, talks about the future of Performance & Condition Monitoring and how new technologies will deliver accurate data for real-time decision making.

Businesses are transforming. People across the enterprise need to change their behavior. Execution needs to happen in the trenches. Wasteful spending needs to stop. Learning leaders see how these maxims play out in their organizations, and as a result, they have to adapt to the internal forces at play within their organization and engage their team to adapt and rally to drive the business forward. Since the economy reset itself five years ago, many roles within the organization have changed. For example, salespeople have to sell higher. Marketers need to become more relevant to buyers. IT leaders need to provide higher levels of service to the business leaders they support, and finance is looking for more visibility into day-to-day activities. The question is, how has the role of learning leader changed? I have a lot of discussions with learning leaders at the director level and above. Across a variety of different industries, these learning leaders are working hard to turn information into actionable knowledge. While some are focused on driving efficiency and costs out of the learning function, others are focused on providing more valuable services to the front line. A handful of leaders are building truly adaptive learning functions that help their CEOs bridge the gap between strategy and execution. For the most part, learning leaders are falling into two camps as they cope with complexity and respond to changes in their market and organization. They’re either evolving into firelighters or they are becoming firefighters (see the table below). The question is, which are you?

Billy Biggs, Director - Public Sector at GP Strategies, discusses the challenges CEO’s face in attracting and maintaining the Millennial, as well as the Generation Y workforce.

In the course of my work across the human capital enablement landscape, I talk with a lot of learning leaders about their challenges in building a bridge to the lines of business. Some have become partners with the business units, but most feel they don’t have the influence they need to drive strategic learning initiatives. Take, for example, the chasm that exists between Learning Executives and VPs of Sales. As someone who has a foot in both worlds, I continue to see the gap widening between these two groups. From my perspective, both groups have a lot of value to their executive team. But, for some reason, that value isn’t being realized—especially within the context of cross-functional teaming to pursue sales objectives. So, how do I illuminate the gap they I’m seeing? Well, I will spare you the details of what needs to happen and instead offer you two fictional letters that illustrate what I am seeing. One letter is from the desk of the VP of Sales and the other is from the desk of the Learning Executive. These letters summarize what is occurring across our client base—and give a peek into what I’m seeing. After you read the letters, take a look at the suggestions for breaking down these barriers and moving forward in a more collaborative manner. 1) An open letter to Learning Executive from VP of Sales Dear Learning Leader: I need to talk with you. I have a challenge with my team. I haven’t been able to drive the sales results I need to, and I’m afraid I’m going to get fired because of it. The CEO shared that he counts on you to help improve the human capital of our organization, but so far, we haven’t been able to work together on something specific. Don’t get me wrong; I like you and your team, but it’s hard for me to make major investments in my time if I’m not sure what the outcome is going to be. Our CEO said you were able to get results with that technology we’ve been deploying across the organization. He shared some examples about how you were able to help people get outside their comfort zone to drive our business strategy. I am not sure what to ask for, but I need your help. We both believe people are a critical asset…so how do we get started? - Signed, VP of Sales 2) An open letter to VPs of Sales from Learning Executive Dear VP of Sales: I would like to talk to you. I have a challenge that I would like to address and get your input on. I haven’t been able to find a way to engage you and your team in an ongoing, continuously improving manner. While I believe you’re my internal customer and I want to make sure you are happy, you’re treating me a lot like an order taker. On one hand, you tell me what you want, and my team delivers. On the other hand, you want me to be more strategic and help you and your teams evolve, but you won’t help me engage with the field. As a case in point, I have been trying to get on your calendar to talk about some of the projects we could partner in, but you’ll only give me 30-minute chunks. I have talked to my peers in other companies, and some of them have been able to develop a partnership with their VP of Sales. I would like to do that with you; so how can we get started? - Signed, Learning Executive I know there are some outliers to these two open letters; however, for most of our clients, these letters are reflective of the disconnect I see. So what’s going on? In a nutshell, Sales VPs want to talk about driving sales results and achieving sales objectives, while Learning Executives want to talk about projects and deliverables. - If you’re a Learning Executive, what approach do you have in your bag of tricks to pursue business outcomes? - If you’re a Sales VP, how clear have you been on the outcome you want your Learning Executive to achieve with you? Since the disconnect largely boils down to a communication challenge, and as the self-appointed "marriage counselor" between the two groups, let me offer some advice: To Sales VPs: Find a small project (like a small team in a region) to give to the Learning Executive and her team to work on with you. Clarify the outcomes you want her to achieve with that small sales group. Empower her to drive to the outcome, and then stay engaged by reinforcing her work and helping her report progress on pursuing the outcome. Spend more time telling her sales stories. What wins have there been? What are you hearing from sales managers? What are you seeing on the road? If you feel progress isn’t being made, say so. If progress continues to be an issue, then go ahead and let her know you’re moving on and looking for help elsewhere. To Learning Executives: Stop thinking about helping the whole sales force, and focus on one group of people to make successful first, so you can get traction. Make sure you understand the outcome to achieve, and get your Sales VP’s point of view on what needs to happen to achieve that outcome. Be a leader by gaining more empathy for the salespeople and sales managers who ultimately benefit from your work. If you don’t know their reality and the challenge they have in talking with their buyers, you won’t have credibility. Spend more time architecting an approach to solving the problem before "jumping to the answer." To Sales VPs, leadership isn’t about random activity—it’s about purposeful problem solving. If you feel like you have to persuade or educate anyone on why you’re doing what you’re doing, stop.

Joe Nasal, Senior Vice President of GP Strategies’ Energy Services Division, discusses how Performance and Condition Monitoring Technologies have changed over the years and where we are headed.