Your sales team isn't hitting quota. You have aggressive growth goals but keep falling short. You want more of your sales team to transition from average to top performers. So you invest in sales team training, with the expectation that it will give them the boost they need to not only hit their goals, but exceed them. Then, when it comes to measuring results a few months after training, you find that besides a slight bump, results are largely the same as before. The list of reasons why training goes wrong is long.     Related StoriesOn-Demand Webinar: 5 Elements of World-Class Sales Training Programs[New White Paper] World-Class Sales Training: How to Build and Implement Your Own Sales UniversityThe Foundation of the Most Effective Sales Training 

We've written a lot about our What Sales Winners Do Differently research, in which we studied more than 700 B2B sales purchases by buyers representing $3.1 billion in annual purchasing power. We've shared with you how sales winners don't only sell differently, they sell radically differently from second-place finishers. Sellers who win have distinct patterns for how they sell. There's a specific combination of behaviors and outcomes they achieve that second-place finishers don't. (See the Top 10 Factors Separating Sales Winners from the Rest.) We've categorized and labeled these factors in the Three Levels of RAIN SellingSM: Connect, convince, and collaborate: Here is what winners of B2B sales do both more often, and better than, second-place finishers.     Related Stories5 Ways to Get the Most Out of B2B Sales TrainingBuyers Want to Talk to YouTop 10 Most Popular Content Pieces from 2014 

Sales advice is a dime a dozen. There are scores of "experts" writing articles, white papers, books, blogs, and more, and generally making a lot of noise about how to be successful in sales. And, unsurprisingly, the advice of one "expert" often contradicts the advice of another. Does cold calling work? Is building relationships still important? Is social media worth your time? What are the most effective closing techniques? And the list goes on. With all the advice out there, it’s hard to sort out what’s most important and what will have the greatest impact on your bottom line. To find out, we asked 5 proven sales experts at the top of their fields one question.     Related StoriesRisky Business: 4 Areas Buyers Perceive Risk in SalesTake the New Survey: The Top-Performing Sales OrganizationHow to Measure Your Client Relationship Strength 

"Take time to deliberate; but when the time for action arrives, stop thinking and go in." - Napoleon Bonaparte I've seen more people intend to crush their goals than I have seen people actually crush their goals. They talk about how they're going to make it to the top. They read books and attend seminars. They talk a good game. Then many go nowhere. Oh, they can justify their lack of production: the competition has advantages, the buyers won't act, the economy is rough. No luck this year. Excuses.     Related StoriesRisky Business: 4 Areas Buyers Perceive Risk in SalesHow to Measure Your Client Relationship Strength5 Changes in B2B Buying Behavior You Need to Know About 

Ask most people about the strength of their core client relationships and they'll say, "Great. Rock solid." Yet these comments usually refer to how much rapport or trust sellers feel they have with the client. They don't answer the question through the lens of business value the client receives from them. They're also often thinking more of the relationship they feel they have with their client, not how their client feels about them. To assess the strength of your relationship with a client, the key is to view it through their eyes. You can start by evaluating your relationships using these 7 questions.     Related StoriesRisky Business: 4 Areas Buyers Perceive Risk in SalesSell with Hustle, Passion, and Intensity5 Changes in B2B Buying Behavior You Need to Know About 

In this RAIN Group Center for Sales Research survey, we set out to answer the following question: What do the top-performing sales organizations—those with better proposal win rates, attainment of sales plan, and overall revenue growth—do differently than the rest? But we need your help. Please take 15 minutes to complete the Top-Performing Sales Organization survey. As a thank you for participating, you'll receive a free report summary.     Related StoriesWant Loyal Clients? It Starts in the Buying ProcessFree Ebook: The One Piece of Advice You Need to Exceed Your Sales Targets[New White Paper] World-Class Sales Training: How to Build and Implement Your Own Sales University 

I worked with a company recently whose sellers had to drive their own demand. In one case, a seller engaged a buyer in a discussion about an opportunity, and the buyer was interested. They had a few meetings, but then the sale fizzled out. When the seller asked why, the buyer told him that they simply weren't going to pursue it further. The seller said to me later, "The business impact story here was tremendous; more than a 10 times return on investment was easy to see. That this sale didn't move forward...I can't believe they just didn't see it." We then talked to the buyer as a part of our analysis of the lost sale. When we mentioned the ROI case to the buyer and asked him about it, he said, "Oh, I saw the ROI case. I got it. I would have loved to achieve it. I just didn't believe it would come true." The buyer saw the ROI; he just didn't believe it. There was too much risk.     Related StoriesHow to Measure Your Client Relationship StrengthSell with Hustle, Passion, and Intensity5 Changes in B2B Buying Behavior You Need to Know About 

Client loyalty is tough to earn. Fred Reichheld, author of The Loyalty Effect and creator of the Net Promoter System, found that most corporations lose 50% of their customers every 5 years, 50% of employees in 4 years, and 50% of investors in less than one year. It's not surprising. It isn't easy to achieve the highest levels of satisfaction and relationship strength needed to keep clients loyal at a higher clip than average. There's a lot of research out there supporting the link between overall client satisfaction after they buy and their loyalty. It's not, however, just about what happens after the buyer buys. The RAIN Group Center for Sales Research has found a link between loyalty and satisfaction with the buying process itself.     Related StoriesTake the New Survey: The Top-Performing Sales OrganizationInfographic: 10 Steps for Growing Your Key Accounts10 Essential Selling Skills 

Today's sales winners harness the power of ideas. Our latest book, Insight Selling, outlines exactly what sellers need to do to transform into insight sellers, and start inspiring buyers with valuable new perspectives. These bite-sized quotes pulled directly from the pages of Insight Selling can provide you and your sales team with the motivation and tips to help you do just that. Tweet them and share the sales quotes.     Related StoriesBringing Insight to B2B Sales: Sell Like the Winners Do5 Ways to Get the Most Out of B2B Sales TrainingBuyers Want to Talk to You 

As a line manager, one of your principal responsibilities is to develop your direct reports. Coaching and mentoring are two of the most powerful and well-publicized ways to support the development of other people—but how do these relationships work best in the context of a work team? Whatever approach you take to developing direct reports, it’s clear that there are potential conflicts of role. For example, between: Being the person responsible for discipline versus being a supportive friend Having a strong input on issues of bonuses/promotions versus having fully open and honest conversations about performance and careers Focusing on achieving short-term results versus focusing on medium- or long-term career plans To resolve these conflicts, it’s essential to look at coaching and mentoring as two complementary relationships that take place in an environment of trust. Mentoring will typically concentrate on issues relating to career development and will often emphasize role modeling. It typically takes a longer term, much less task-focused perspective than coaching, which concentrates on performance and often involves direct feedback to the learner. Mentoring tends to require a much deeper level of self-disclosure on the part of both mentor and mentee than is normally required in a coaching conversation. It’s not surprising, then, that it is much more difficult to be a mentor to a direct report than to be a coach to them. This separation of mentor and mentee roles is particularly important, where the amount of time the manager has for developing directs is limited. It can easily lead to situations where those who are mentored are seen as unfairly privileged. Coaching is much more likely to be evenly distributed because it is focused on short-term issues. Some useful guidelines for getting the best out of coaching and mentoring are as follows: Become part of a mentor "pool" in which you offer mentoring to people in colleagues’ teams and they do the same for yours. Use the mentor as a resource of learning and support for yourself as coach and mentor. Clarify with your team what to expect from coaching and from mentoring. Be prepared to discuss career issues with your direct reports, but make them aware of the value of exploring these issues with someone who has a different perspective. If appropriate, suggest topics that direct reports might like to explore with their mentor, but don’t make them feel obligated to do so. Don’t expect or ask to be told what mentee and mentor have discussed, but be appreciative of anything the mentee does tell you. Ensure all your direct reports have personal development plans that include short-, medium-, and long-term objectives. Discuss with them where coaching, mentoring, or both together can be instrumental in achieving those objectives. Have regular conversations with your direct reports about tasks they could take on that would stretch them. Place the emphasis of coaching and mentoring on building on strengths, rather than on overcoming weaknesses, and on opportunities, rather than problems. Conduct a regular review (at least once every six months) with your team to explore how coaching and mentoring are working.

Like Billy Crystal in City Slickers, many L&D professionals could benefit from seeking the answer to the eternal question—What is "The One Thing"? The L&D measurement transformation has been underway for many years, yet it has only been recently that some client L&D efforts have shifted from trying to justify their existence and show ROI on the learning infrastructure investments, like LMSs and "butts in seat" to providing a measureable link to direct business impact. I remember primitive data-gathering techniques and prehistoric analytics efforts when I was an instructor and designer for nuclear training programs in the ‘80s. If you had any training or testing data on a Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheet, or later in an Advanced Revelations database, you were golden. We worked with the rudimentary tools we had and made the best decisions we could to improve training program effectiveness. And for the most part, it worked. Granted, it was a highly regulated industry with a plethora of government rules and regulations, and extensive testing, certifications, and licensing that needed to be complied with. But the training evaluation systems had outcomes that were directly impacting the business: the number of students who were issued a license to operate the plant, the reduction in human errors, the plant’s availability and capacity factor, the days it took to complete a refueling, etc. But today there remains a huge disconnect between what executives want for data and results, and where current effort is allocated by L&D. Data from the Forum Corporation’s Customer Driven Training Organization are shown in the illustration below and clearly indicate a misalignment. Surprised with the results contained in this graphic? I’m not! Very few organizations have had the courage or foresight to leave meaningless data behind and report on information that will give the learning leaders and the business leaders input to make rational decisions for continuous improvement. As shown above, the only area where stakeholders and the L&D organization seem to be somewhat closely aligned is on delivery metrics; otherwise, it’s like a 180-degree difference in priorities. Is there evidence that shifting to different measurement will provide higher impact? Absolutely! In fact, a recent study by Knowledge Advisors and Bassi Investments (cited in a CLO Magazine article titled "Emerging Issues in Measurement") illustrated that a group of companies with high learning and development measurement acumen outperformed the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index in terms of share price appreciation by more than 15 percent. Now, that’s significant! So, be controversial and provocative. Next time you are reviewing your scorecard metrics, SLAs and KPIs, line out the ones that are not business-related and see how many that remain are really important to business results or stakeholder desires. The results may surprise you. At your next business review, just report on those that are measuring business impact. You may get an approving nod on the other side of the table, both for relevance and for simplicity. Be like Curly in City Slickers, seek and report on "The One Thing" that will quickly align your L&D measurement efforts with your stakeholders’ desires.

Change was in the air at the 2012 NAB Show in Las Vegas. The theme of this year’s show was "The Great Content Shift".  The shift being discussed revolves around how content is delivered. As one writer put it, "…by 2020, ‘broadcasting‘ is a term that will be foreign to anyone under 40." With more and more content being delivered digitally, and to a rapidly growing number of devices, what larger content trends from the broadcasting world are applicable the Learning industry? Availability. Users expect to be able to find what they want, when they want it, and now more than ever, where they want it. Vendors were proudly showing off their capabilities to deliver content to TVs, computers, tablets, and mobile devices. As learners become more accustomed to engaging with content in different locations, learning strategies that don’t accommodate this mentality could face backlash. This could come in the conscious form, where a learner notices and complains about the lack of availability. Or, even worse, the learner who never gets to the content at all and quietly fades away. The time of a mobile component in a learning solution being treated as an add-on, or a bonus, are quickly fading away. Quality. The bar for quality is constantly being raised. Not just quality of the content, but the entire infrastructure surrounding it. This includes the user interface, technical quality, and overall experience. Tiny videos delivered in a clunky player, and locked inside a defined area on a webpage are out. Full-screen videos are in.  You may assume that your target audience isn’t part of this streaming generation. Even if they aren’t now, they likely will be soon. Often, good design isn’t noticed, but bad design is. Technology. An enormous amount of space was devoted to vendors showcasing their distribution technologies and platforms. This is a great boon to the learning industry. As the major players (TV, films, etc.) drive more demand, technology advances and prices become more competitive. The media and distribution needs of a Learning solution are typically a small fraction of a typical broadcast installation.  This is a good time to be a small fish in a big pond. I sincerely doubt there’s not a solution out there already for whatever learning needs you have. The key is knowing who to partner with. Being aware of the trends driving the entertainment and information industries can help us delivery a quality learning experience that will meet learners’ ever increasing expectations.

In the previous article, I discussed some large trends evident at the 2012 NAB Show. But, is that why a Media Producer such as myself really wants to attend the show? Nope. I want to get my hands on all the new gear. Here’s a few things that stood out related to tools for media production: 1. Mobile video tools I saw individuals and small crews shooting and posting videos right from the show floor using tablets and phones. One of the best looking setups was The Padcaster. I watched as one crew edited and posted their piece using Avid Studio for iPad, which offers some more professional features than the also excellent iMovie for iOS. I also saw a few people using the Steadicam Smoothee. Yes, that’s right, a Steadicam for a phone. But I tried it and it works great. GoPro had one of the most active booths of the whole show (tossing free cameras to a crowd doesn’t hurt). The new Protune Firmware for the HD HERO2 will allow for higher quality production. In fact, with the upcoming Wi-Fi accessories and app, you could do a very affordable and dynamic multi-camera shoot. I can see lots of potential for this in the learning world. If wearing a GoPro on your head is too dorky for you, check out these Pivothead Sunglasses that record in 1080p. If you need to do any POV learning, this could be an exciting option. 2. iPad audio add-ons. Good sound is crucial to production. Since the iPad is silent, portable, and powerful, it makes a great recording device. MicW had the most options for display on the show floor. Check out their iSeries of microphones for some great options. The iPhone Boom Mic looks great and is only $40 (works on iPad too). There was still no sign of Blue Microphone’s highly anticpated Mikey Digital device. For a more stationary approach, I’d recommend the Blue Microphone USB line using Apple’s connection kit. Nothing helps the sound like a good quality sound booth, like the ones on display from VocalBooth. Check out the video from this post to hear the difference it can make. 3. DSLR Dominance. It was hard to walk around the floor without bumping into someone shooting with a DSLR camera. There’s a reason they’ve become so popular, especially for lower budgets that still demand high quality video. One piece of evidence for this was Nikon’s first ever booth at NAB to support their D800. Canon had the largest booth of the entire show as they featured their new cameras from all ranges. I think that any learning company could find dozens of uses for the new 5D Mark III for both video and photos. If that’s out of budget, the 5D Mark II is still a great choice. The floor of NAB was filled with tons of different rigs, add-ons, and tools for DSLR production. The Zacuto Z Finder EVF is a fantastical product. The ultraCage from Redrock was a popular item. There was one surprise announcement that could pose the first challenge in the DSLR price point. The Blackmagic Design Cinema Camera is going to be very interesting to watch. At $3,000, including $1,000 worth of software, this is going to be a popular device if Blackmagic can deliver on its promises. 4. LED Lighting. I was surprised by how many different manufactures were offering LED lighting. If you’re in the market for some LED lights, it’s more important than ever to research carefully. Not all LEDs are created equal. Poor quality lights will make skin turn green and plastic. I recommend sticking with proven companies such as Litepanels, Lowel, and Flolight. If those are out of budget, a good tungsten kit or florescent setup is a better bet then cheap LEDs. If you need lighting in a tough and/or remote environment, check out the innovative Remote Area Lighting Systems from Pelican.  5. New Products from Wacom Wacom was showing off their Cintiq 24HD, a 24-inch screen and tablet combo. It’s a totally different way to use a computer. The size of the screen lets you dive completely into your work. Even on the busy show floor I was totally engrossed in what was in front of me. The Inking is a fascinating little device that was also on display. This lets you draw or write on any paper and automatically convert it into a digital file. I’d recommend checking out the reviews on Amazon as there is some concern with its accuracy. 6. 4K and 3D. There was a lot of floor space devoted to 4K Video and 3D. Let’s face it, unless you’re developing learning for James Cameron, this isn’t likely to impact you. Let’s just hope it continues to drive down the cost of regular HD equipment. New technologies and equipment can help create high-quality learning content, but it’s only a small piece of the puzzle. You still need a solid strategy, reliable platform, and professional team in place to maximize the impact that media can have.

Watch in accelerated time the construction of Encana’s first liquefied natural gas (LNG) station in DeSoto Parish, Louisiana via their YouTube channel. The transportation sector is the single largest contributor of greenhouse gas emissions, making it all the more urgent to create a low-carbon economy based on natural gas. GP Strategies is proud to have been able to help work on the construction of the site.  

Often I am called upon to meet with clients who are interested in using the SharePoint platform. One of the first questions that I ask is, "Why do you want to use the platform?" I receive a variety of answers, but the prevailing answer is, "So we can collaborate better." This sounds great, and in fact, if you go to Microsoft’s SharePoint site, you will see that collaboration is listed as one of the main reasons that the platform is in place. However, I have noted that several of the groups I have had the pleasure of working with seem to miss what the meaning of collaboration is. It’s almost as if the word collaboration has differing meanings for each group that I work with. In fact, I would venture to say that many people confuse collaboration with communication. For example, when I ask follow-up questions around what they are trying to accomplish by collaborating with each other, the conversation usually takes a turn towards, "We want to be able to share information that we have more effectively with the rest of the organization." In my mind, I instantly think that what they are really trying to do is to have a communication venue for the conveyance of information. Now, I understand that communication has to precede collaboration. Wikipedia actually refers back to communication when defining collaboration. But if we look at what collaboration truly means, it is almost a meeting of the minds of sorts—where one person or a group of people have a skillset that they would like to partner with either another person or group of people in order to develop a solution to an issue or to innovate something new. When I was younger, I read the "Clan of the Cave Bear" series. The one thing I enjoyed about that series was the basis of community that the characters engendered. Each person in the clan had a skillset and they learned that they had to work together in order to protect their village, hunt for food, search for resources, or to cure each other. The storyline taught me that no one person can stand alone. It took the combination of each of the members of the clan in order for each person to survive. In order for the clan to work together or "collaborate," they needed to be able to communicate with each other so they would be able to convey to the other members what their different skillsets were. Luckily, the clans had a single spoken language that they used, which allowed them to communicate with each other. But, at the same time, they had to demonstrate their abilities (or prove themselves) as being able to do what they said they could.  When the main character Ayla entered the clan initially, she was unable to communicate with the rest of the clan members. The clan was nice to her. They fed her and gave her a place to sleep. But after a while, they began to worry that she did not have any skills that would be of use to them. It was only after the clan’s Healer noticed Ayla picking herbs and other medicinal plants that the clan saw that she had the ability to heal. After which Ayla became an accepted member of the clan and rose through their hierarchy to become a very respected member. This early story demonstrated to me that there is a difference between communication and collaboration. Communication gives us the ability to interact with each other. Once there is great communication in place, then collaboration can occur. If I take the example from the Clan of the Cave Bear series and apply it to business today, I do see parallels between the two. An organization has several members who each have a different skillset. They are brought together in order to achieve the organization’s goals. However, over the last few decades, I have noticed that the groups (or departments) tend to go into their own little corner of the organization and only interact with the rest of the departments when they absolutely have to. In the past, this may have been acceptable, but today we are seeing that the truly great and successful organizations are innovating and opening up new markets and opportunities. A lot of organizations have noted this as well. And the message from on high is, "We have to collaborate in order to come up with new and innovative opportunities for ourselves." But do you recall what I said has happened over the last few decades? Each of the self-imposed silos is being called upon to do this innovation. And some have tried to come up with innovative ideas on their own with varying levels of success. It is only after they realize that while they may be able to come up with new ideas on their own, they will not have the type of impact that is needed in order to drive their organization further.  This is where the model of the silo departments fails. After all, they do not have the pathways of communication needed in order to reach across departments to pull in the talent that they need. So, now we are seeing these departments wanting to leap into the collaborative space in order to work with other departments. But do you recall the two things I pointed out from the Clan of the Cave Bear series, related to collaboration? Communication has to be in place first. After all, how will the different departments know what each is capable of? And then each department has to be confident in knowing that the other department can actually deliver on their claims.  Once the communication is in place, then collaboration can begin.

As a follow-up to my last blog "I Hate My LMS", I would like to take a look at a more fundamental question, "Do I need an LMS?" I have been asked this question by several of my clients over the last few months. All of the recent hype on social collaboration and informal learning seems to be overshadowing formal learning and has resulted in companies questioning the need for an LMS. I was actually surprised the first time I was asked the question, and my quick response was "Absolutely." But I took some time to think and reflect on the question to make sure my gut reaction was correct. If we take a look at the basic functionality of an LMS, it was designed to electronically register, deliver, and track learning assets. Over the past 10 years as LMS vendors realized that they would not survive unless they continued to add features and functionality, we now have bloated systems that in the next release will probably brew your morning coffee. But the basic functionality of the LMS is still critical to all organizations. When we are considering eliminating an LMS, we may be forgetting about that core tracking functionality. I remember a conversation I had with a Fortune 500 CLO that said his job was to keep his company from being on the front page of the newspaper. We all know that the front page of a newspaper is not where the good news is printed. We get on the front page when employees make big mistakes, and when asked why, their reply is "I was never trained." Try to prove they were trained by using existing social collaboration systems or showing informal training methods. For those of you that are old enough to remember the training business prior to having the LMS, we would document attendance at a training session on paper and then store them in file cabinets until they could be copied onto microfiche ( if you need to look up what microfiche is, then you are not old enough to remember pre-LMS). When asked by an auditor or some other official to prove training occurred, it would take days to retrieve the information. Today we live in an environment of I want and need the information now. Any attempt to delay the delivery of information looks like a cover-up. So the next time you are brewing your morning cup of coffee through the LMS, remember quick proof of training is why we have and need an LMS.

Don Duquette, Executive Vice President at GP Strategies Corporation (GPX) discusses the competitive advantages of GP Strategies’ Learning Outsourcing.

Doug Sharp, President at GP Strategies Corporation (GPX), discusses the company’s impact on Heavy Hauler Transportation by leveraging LNG.

Everyone makes an impact on their company, their community, and even the world around them through the work that they do. Yes, everybody. We recently exhibited and presented at the ASTD 2012 Expo and Conference where we asked several attendees to tell us how they make an impact through the work that they do. We were impressed and inspired by the amount of people who participated and shared their stories on our Facebook page! The initial incentive could have been the dangling carrot (an iPad that we were giving away to a random winner), but in talking with a few of the participants, leaving their Impact story helped them reignite that passion for why they wake up every morning and chose to do the work that they do. After a few weeks of collecting stories, we are excited to announce that Jennifer W. won the Impact Story Campaign! Here is her story: I provide training in the private sector as well as teaching at the graduate level. A few years ago, I was reading a student’s portfolio (the final graduation requirement document) and found a paper titled "I Love My Teacher." Her story made me cry! Why? She told a story of how nervous she was about going back to graduate school after 30 years since she finished her undergraduate degree. She was afraid of what the experience might be like (her other experiences were not as good). She even described what she wore and what she did to try and relax since she was so stressed. She even recalled how she almost did not come to class! She said that after 5 minutes in class, she decided she loved her teacher. She said she felt respected, appreciated, and treated like a professional. She was glad she stayed and mentioned how she aspires to do the same for her students…make them feel safe in their learning environment. She turned out to be one of the top students and blossomed in her comfort and ability to learn. I was proud to be that teacher she loved. It helped me to realize that creating a safe learning environment is a key to learning success. Whether it is in a classroom or online, creating this environment helps a learner be open and successful. So, before I introduce too much content, I make sure I am creating a fantastic and safe learning environment. —Jennifer W. From the front-line performers to company executives, everyone makes an impact through the work that they do. And, with the right knowledge support and strategies in place, we can all perform at our highest potential to make that impact even bigger. What’s your story?

Scott Greenberg, chief executive officer of GP Strategies Corporation (GPX), talks about his career with the company.

Have you ever stopped to think about what goes into just about everything we use on a daily basis? It’s difficult to even fathom where anything we use comes from. Gas, food, medicine, transportation, and the list goes on. These products all have a back-end process to create the goods and there is always someone or something behind the curtain of everything we use. Technology and people work together to create our comfortable living situations. So who or what is out there to govern the processes and people involved in creating our goods? Is there anything out there ensuring that the products we use are safe, the technology used to produce them is environmentally conscious, and the people on the front line in production are not in danger at work? This is the basis behind regulatory compliance. It’s hard to find an industry these days that is not subject to regulatory auditing in some way. Whether it’s off shore on the oil rig or on the line of a manufacturer, governmental laws and rules apply to all in some form or another. For the organizations that produce these products, the consequences of failing an audit can be quite severe, depending on the industry and sections of the audit they failed. Essential to these companies are regulatory compliance capabilities and initiatives. There are four main attributes to ensure your organization is meeting regulatory standards: Training Documentation Regulatory Compliance Regulatory Change Management In training, organizations must ensure their operations and personnel are well-versed in regulations and compliance requirements. Establishing a robust and user-friendly means to transfer knowledge and skills is a must. Documentation includes operating procedures, emergency procedures, process line documentation, as well as training records and related documentation. This aspect of regulatory compliance requires careful attention to detail and focused practices, ensuring that the documentation is well-maintained and updated as needed. Regulatory compliance is both an art and science. The art of regulatory compliance resides in creating strong technical documentation that is both well written and user friendly.  On the surface this appears simple, but in practice many organizations are challenged to find strong technical writing skills that can develop well written and reader friendly documentation. The science aspect requires technical accuracy and the quality control efforts to validate that the included specifications or limits are correct and up to date.  Often organizations are strong in this area as they have exceptional subject matter expertise.  The common headache is documentation change management practices.  The science is building adequate processes to safe guard your organization so that documentation is kept up to date as facility or plant conditions change and/or regulations change. Achieving regulatory compliance requires a complex set of actions that each organization must complete. Obtaining a satisfactory level of compliance requires discipline and attention to detail, ensuring that your organization is completing the right practices in a timely manner. Documentation and training are must-have elements as well. Many organizations must devote full-time positions to oversee the various regulations and ensure compliance. Lastly, managing change and ensuring that your compliance is up to date to new standards and regulations is paramount. Careful updating and review of new postings and regulations is required so that your organization is not caught unaware. Preparation is key, as the communication of most new changes is well-documented, but acting on the new standard or regulations can be costly, so some organizations will delay, resulting in poor audit performance or perhaps even failure and fines. Careful and pragmatic change management must be integral to a successful program. Laws and regulations are constantly evolving across all industries. This requires organizations to take a proactive approach to regulation standards. Take for example the new SEMS regulations for off-shore oil production, which came into effect in November 2011. This, like many other changes to regulations, was based off of a virtually catastrophic event within the industry (well-known oil spill of the Gulf Coast). While these new regulations mirror PSM (the older version of the regulations) in a lot of ways, there are still enough differences that companies need to pay attention to the changes and begin to take a proactive approach to align their operation to accepted standards of operations and ensure that they are socially and environmentally responsible in order to avoid costly fines. Do you find that the company you work for takes a reactive or proactive approach to regulatory compliance? Is your documentation and training in place, and are there well-established practices for maintaining your compliance? Lastly, what steps are in place to ensure change management is integrated into all aspects of the regulatory compliance so that your organization is ahead of the wave instead of being consumed by it? Looking forward, I want to take a closer look at several of the regulations that the industry is working with and explore some of the practices and actions that are making regulatory compliance achievable and sustainable. See you at the next post!

Scott Greenberg, Chief Executive Officer at GP Strategies Corporation (GPX), and Sharon Esposito-Mayer, Chief Financial Officer, discuss competition in the marketplace.

It’s the time of year when graduates are celebrated as we end another school year. Last week, I had the pleasure of attending my daughter’s kindergarten graduation ceremony (YES, they really do have them—which I learned this year since she’s my oldest). It was adorable. All of the kids wore caps, sang songs, received graduation certificates and earned special awards "just for them," and each child was publicly recognized by the principal for their special talents. It was a great event, and children, parents, teachers and administrators were all celebrating achievements from the year. SO, in the spirit of recognition, I was inspired to reflect on the importance of acknowledging team members in the workplace for their accomplishments to drive engagement and boost productivity. In April, SHRM/Globoforce released a survey on this very subject, which reveals the growing impact of recognition programs on performance.  At GP Strategies, we have an employee recognition program called Our People Make a Difference that highlights individuals and teams living our values and who are truly making a difference for the customers (internal and external) they serve. Employees are encouraged to nominate their peers, leaders, and teams and tell the story of their impact.  Nominees are recognized in the following mediums: An All-Hands email is distributed with a detailed story of how they made a difference. They receive a "Making the Difference" certificate signed by our president. They are recognized in our quarterly internal newsletter. They are also recognized publicly on our leadership calls. This program is revered by our Company, and as a result, several hundred employees are celebrated for their "specific talents" each year. Our People Make a Difference award recipients serve as models for others by showcasing exceptional customer service and delivering business impact. Although a formal program is great, a phone call, email or simple "thank you" for a job well done daily is a great habit to practice to keep the performance engine running! Do you have a formal recognition program with your organization? Please share as it’s always great to learn what others are doing to drive employee engagement and performance!

Sharon Esposito-Mayer, Chief Financial Officer at GP Strategies Corporation (GPX) discusses the company’s client base.