I went snorkeling for the first time in Malaysia, off one of the southern islands, Sibu. I’m not a strong swimmer, so the thought of going out of my depth made me nervous, but the addition of a lifejacket dispelled this fear. The risk of sinking diminished; I was able to duck my head under the water for the first time and discovered a whole new world: a world of colour, movement and beauty, hidden from sight by the surface of the sea. After ten seconds, both Cath and I stuck our heads up above the water, both wide eyed, tripping over ourselves to express our amazement at what we’d seen. I’ve lived my life by the sea: from early days building sandcastles and digging ditches, I’ve graduated to kayaking and sailing relentlessly, but all the time on the surface (if you ignore the ignominious dips into the soup after ill advised turns). It was only this trip, with lifejacket, mask and snorkel that the window on a whole new world opened up for me. Perspective is a funny thing: we think we know something, then our eyes are opened and we realise we were missing a huge part of the picture. This initial disturbance is a key part of learning (as are the performance support and exploration tools that enable us to change our perspective). We have to disturb our current view before we can take on a new one. Sometimes this disturbance is planned, sometimes accidental, indeed, unraveling ‘how we come to learn‘ was one of the themes I explored at the conference. Sometimes planned, sometimes needs driven, sometimes through curiosity, sometimes by accident, it takes disturbance to start the process, disturbance either externally (planned and need) or internal (curiosity). I’d never have discovered this new underwater world without the support, literally, of a life jacket. I would never have had the confidence to jump, but it’s only by jumping that we learn. Maybe sometimes we should focus less on the end results of learning, more on supporting the process. Helping people to jump in safety, creating the right type of disturbance, and celebrating when we find the riches that lie beyond. That’s got to be a great approach to take. Originally published on Julian Stodd’s Learning Blog

In today’s "Do more with less" economy, senior executives are taking a step back and looking at many of their programs and asking their teams, "What’s the business impact?" From sales kickoff activities to enablement programs and new hire training programs, they’re looking for justification on why they should fund such programs. A consistent program under the microscope by sales leaders is the new hire sales training program. Here’s what’s going on. Sales leaders are looking to their training and HR colleagues to help improve new hire sales training execution. A major catalyst for this push is the need for more globally consistent programs that: Get new hires up to speed more quickly Drive costs out of fragmented global execution Create a more consistent output of skilled new hires Provide a higher quality mechanism that helps reps overcome complexity Last month I had a conversation with a sales enablement leader in a large financial services company. She was asked to rebuild and relaunch their global new hire training program. She had done a lot of work to identify the work already going on across the globe and determined what appeared to be working or not working. But she admitted they were stuck on how to move forward. The challenge as she defined it? "Getting everyone on the same page so they could all move forward." I see this a lot these days. A clear challenge exists, but unified action doesn’t. Creating unified action across a variety of different groups and moving forward together is a challenge I see a lot. When you look at new hire sales training, there are a lot of people with a vested interest. For example, product groups want to make sure product knowledge is covered, marketing wants to make sure the brand is covered, HR wants to make sure engagement happens, sales operations wants to make sure compliance happens, sales management wants processes followed and sales enablement wants to make sure reps have the right skills. That’s a lot of perspective coming into one program. This is a new reality that many sales enablement professionals have to learn to deal with. In the case of this most recent conversation about new hire training, the concept of improving new hire sales training wasn’t foreign to any leaders in those groups. What was foreign, however, was the idea of coming up with specific actions to take, priorities to tackle and content to create. These tactical elements were hard to wrangle in. So, we took a step back and took some time to think things through. To help, she sent me the 50+ files that composed the global "view" of new hire sales training and I reviewed it. She also shared more details about where she was "stuck" on their new sales training decision-making process. When we reconvened, I shared what I was able to synthesize from her situation. And then I asked a simple question: "So, at what point will new hires be learning about their customers?" "Ummmmmm," she said. I continued. "Sorry, I just couldn’t find much detail about the customer as I was working through all the information about who your company is, when it was founded, what products you have, what your vision is for the way products need to be used, the innovations you’re looking to bring to the market, the processes that reps need to follow and the technology they’re supposed to use." "Yeah," she said. "It’s a lot about us, isn’t it?" "Yes," I said. "Perhaps we should start there?" To me, there is a key lesson to be learned in how to balance more with less when it comes to enabling reps to sell more successfully. What salespeople need MORE of are services from internal groups that are designed to help them embrace their reality and help them have more valuable conversations with clients. What they need LESS of is random activity designed to "help them sell" that actually puts more burden on their backs and requires them to figure out what to do on their own. In other words, if your new hire training program is all about your company and its products, how exactly is that program helping reps have conversations with senior level buyers in the first two weeks on the job? So, if you’re looking to revamp new hire training, remember it’s not about more product, process or program training with the goal of cramming information into the heads of salespeople. It’s about enabling new hire reps to have the right sales conversations with their buyers on day two of their job. Here are some tips to get in front of the sales new hire training challenge: Define the interlock between employee onboarding and new hire training. While HR typically handles onboarding, what’s the focus and business reason for investing in new hire training? Clarify that design point and get sales leadership buy-in on what the program is designed to accomplish. Determine if new hire training is tactical or strategic. If sales leaders are asking you to revamp sales training, why are they asking? For example, do they want to talk about all the tasks involved, or do they want to talk about the role of new hire training in achieving the sales strategy? Move new hire training from an event to an experience. Too many sales new hire training programs are built as siloed activities instead of an end-to-end enablement service designed to help reps get critical traction in the first 90-120 days on the job. If everyone in marketing, sales, training and management takes that approach, the design point and objective of the program become fragmented, and the program becomes more about your company than the client’s reality.

August marks the countdown before a new school year, even if it’s been years since your K12 or college days. Now’s a great time to reflect on what has or has not been accomplished during the summer. While summer’s not the lazy vacation it might have been in years gone by, the longer hours and agreeable weather bring about a change of pace and offer a chance to achieve something that you simply didn’t feel you had time for earlier in the year. The possibilities during summer months are endless—and there are many online references to consult. Both formal and informal activities count: Reading a great book Learning a new skill or working towards a fitness goal Travelling to a favorite or new place Organizing some aspect of your life Summer experiences may enrich us and set us on a different course for the rest of the year. For some, making a monetary investment or voicing a commitment to others by signing up for a workshop or online course is sufficient incentive to complete it. With so many social media avenues available to us, we can post our intentions publicly or selectively, and then follow up with updates on our progress and hurdles. Let your friends know what you’re up to and you might just get company or at least a cheering section. For others, the personal sense of accomplishment is what drives them to achieve a goal: A gardening class can help you to beautify that neglected patch of backyard A CPR refresher course could bring you peace of mind at the pool or beach If you enjoy your community’s history, find out if the local museum has a docent or volunteer program you can participate in. Have a fitness goal? Check out local parks to see what seasonal activities could help you stay on track. For example, trails challenge programs offer incentives (for example, a patch or T-shirt) for hiking "x" number of miles of park trails. If you’ve got a family or friends group of varying ages to consider, something you may all enjoy is a treasure-hunting activity with GPS devices known as geocaching it makes any hike an adventure. What, you say you haven’t started anything yet? Don’t fret now that we’re in the final weeks of summer. If you’re a procrastinator, this may be the push you need to start OR wrap up that program!

Plenty of companies in the SharePoint universe have produced amazing extensions to the platform. A common question that I am asked is "Is this SharePoint add-in any good?" This is always a loaded question for me to answer. After all, I believe that any add-in has the potential for being a good add-in. For me, the question is actually "Is this add-in a good fit for my organization?" In this month’s CLO Magazine, I published an article around this very question and offer insights into doing an initial evaluation of SharePoint add-ins. Click here to read the full article, otherwise enjoy a snapshot look at the insights below. So, back to the question "Is this add-on a good fit for my organization?" To help formulate an answer, hold the add-in up to the following five initial questions. Sort of like the sniff test. How does SharePoint fit in with the strategic objectives for the organization? How does the add-in, being considered, assist with fulfilling the strategic objectives? What features or services does the add-in have that the organization does not need or will not use? Does the add-in scale well within the SharePoint platform? When deployed, how easy or hard will it be for the user base to use it?                 In the end, the myriad of add-ins available for SharePoint are spectacular with each having the potential of propelling an organization toward their goals. But the value of the add-in is limited to the value an organization gains from using it. In order to determine whether an add-in is good for your organization, hold it up to the five aforementioned questions and see how it measures up.

If you have children, you’ve probably witnessed the power of a good story. Picture a story hour at the local library—children gathered around, quiet, focused, and interested, even if only for a few moments. Whether gathering for coffee or at the water cooler, it seems human nature to be interested in stories. Think of a time when you had to sit through a presentation; didn’t a good story make it more memorable? In workplace training, don’t you wish you could get that same level of rapt attention from your learners, where they absorb, apply, or even share what they have learned? You can if you make a place to weave stories into the training design. Storytelling can: Relate the training to real workplace challenges: When we uncover a real and useful story from a subject matter expert, it gives real depth to the training. It connects the learners to the specific message or skill, rather than generalities. Encourage learners to share their own stories: Real stories serve as a prompt for an open, honest discussion for sharing best practices, challenges, and opportunities. Reinforce application and practice: Stories give learners a way to visualize how they can apply the learning to their own situations. They show specific examples of when and how to apply knowledge. Stories compel people to learn and retain: They breathe life into flat data and objectives, and link valuable meaning to numbers and facts. Storytelling in instructional design can be a powerful, motivating tool. In the Training Designer’s Guide to Saving the World, training consultant Cathy Moore calls designing experiences as one of the six essential steps to make training more powerful and relevant for learners. She writes, "People have to take action. Your goal now is to help them practice that action. To do that, you’re going to design experiences, not information." Adding useful workplace stories to training not only grabs our attention, but also makes us listen closely, helps us remember, and inspires us to apply what we’ve learned. More resources http://theelearningcoach.com/elearning2-0/why-you-need-to-use-storytelling-for-learning/ http://www.ginaabudi.com/use-storytelling-in-learning-programs/ http://www.vision2lead.com/Storytelling.pdf

I had a great meeting in London yesterday: We talked about the changing nature of work in the Social Age, about the evolution of leadership about the challenges of change. As we rode the lift back down to the lobby, a colleague talked about her 16-year-old daughter who had recently joined her on a work experience day. She recounted how the first thing her daughter had done was to take a photo in the lobby, surrounded by the glass, steel and suits of formal work, tag herself and then share that image across her social networks. Funny thing was, I’d done exactly the same thing myself two hours earlier: snapping the abstract chrome sculpture that sits by reception, tagging myself at Global HQ, taking photos of the view from the top floor and sharing it on Facebook. I’d also tagged myself in London and shared that information, asked a few people if they were free for coffee and joined a US colleague who was in town for work for a cup. We inhabit multiple communities, formal and informal. Our working lives cross them all, and we narrate the results in real time. We live social lives: As the divide between the formal world of work and the informal social spaces that surround it collapse, as technology becomes increasingly social and we narrate our lives in pseudo real time across multiple communities, so the very nature of work changes. I’ve charted some of these changes already: how the real power today lies in creating meaning (not in just knowing stuff), how we turn to our communities for support and challenge and how informal technology facilitates different types of conversations and the support of personal learning networks that follow us from job to job (and why organisations have to allow for this and not strangle it with restrictive policies). And we’ve explored the changing nature of authority in the Social Age and how Social Leaders need to demonstrate humility and agility, not just positional authority. The behaviour of Tweeting your picture in the lobby is not the aberration; it’s the norm. Inhabitants of the Social Age work out loud; they share their narratives and create meaning in the moment, turning to different communities at multiple times throughout the day for different purposes. The ability to form, develop and maintain those communities is a key skill for social leaders and social workers. Organisations also need to engage in the story. One organisation I worked with went to great efforts to cleanse its presence from Facebook, believing that there was no place for employees to form communities there under their name. They were, of course, entirely wrong. Whilst on the one hand organisations wring their hands and ask how to generate engagement, on the other they do whatever they can to stamp it out, restricting access to technology, controlling conversations and moderating debate. The Social Age is not about stopping conversations; it’s about taking part in them. That organisation has now reversed its position and supports thriving Facebook spaces. They don’t use them to talk about restricted work subjects, but they do use them to build and strengthen the sense of community, the pride of collaboration and achievement, and sure, now and then, to moan about something. But, why not? Nobody lives in a glass tower… The glass tower of the office used to define what we did and where we did it, but today work happens wherever we engage with it, wherever we have power and a signal. We live social lives and work in social ways. And it makes us more agile, more able to respond, to adapt and to be creative and innovative. Programme design needs to reflect this new reality, providing spaces for the personal narration of learning and development, the co-creation of meaning in community spaces and a place to narrate the organisational story. Social behaviours for social lives. Originally published on Julian Stodd’s Learning Blog.

Today’s global business environment demands more from your leaders than ever before. As barriers disappear, hierarchies and borders become more fluid—you need leaders who can inspire anyone to higher performance, anywhere in the world. You need visionary talent that is the right fit at the right time for your organization. And you need your leaders to be authentic and effective in executing their leadership responsibilities. This issue of Performance Matters includes a video with our own employees talking about what they think are the qualities of a great leader, research and best practices on how to lead technical professionals, mentoring women for leadership roles and much more! Read the latest issue here. Please share these articles with your colleagues and friends and follow us on on our social channels to receive information on the latest trends in learning and development.

Just outside our Solar System, the tiny craft, Voyager, goes hurtling on: The first manmade object to leave our realm. A vessel of hope and dreams. Built with 70′s technology, pioneering in scope and reach, with every day it expands our horizons and points to the future where we may leave the earth behind. But why do I care? Because of the power of inspiration: The energies, hopes and efforts of each one of those engineers, politicians, suppliers and mechanics who dared to dream that they could achieve something that would stretch beyond their lifetimes. At a time when we fight fires and react to change, it can be hard to reach out, to reach beyond, and to dream of places afar. We can get caught in the reactionary now instead of the dreams of a better place. We need dreams. We need to be inspired and to strive to inspire others. We need to see the beauty in the world around us so that we can create and innovate in our immediate lives. A little dreamy? Well, give me that once in a while. If people hadn’t dared to dream, we would never have left the planets behind and struck out on a grand adventure that will live beyond our years. We may not see the end, but we’ve witnessed the start. What has inspired you to reach beyond the day-to-day routine and make a bigger impact through the work that you do? Originally published on Julian Stodd’s Learning Blog

Every once in a while in your professional career, you get to witness something new and exciting that could change the landscape of how you will work going forward. It’s happening right now in the emerging Sales Enablement space, and I would like to share what I’m seeing. What’s going on? For the past 3-4 years, companies across many different industries have struggled to cope with the harsh reality that the business environment has completely changed at both macro- and micro-levels. Macro-level: The economy has reset itself. Since 2005, world economic markets have struggled. As a result, companies have had to drive productivity, enter new markets, and create new innovations, while cutting costs at the same time. This sustained do-more-with-less reality is here to stay for the foreseeable future. Micro-level: The world of work has changed. As a result of the sustained do-more-with-less reality that exists, the way work is done has changed. While there are many trends and buzzwords, like "big data," "collaboration," and "social," that support this, the reality is, we’re well into the inflection point between the industrial revolution and the information age, creating the need for higher knowledge-worker productivity and more outputs then ever before. The Challenge? More CEOs have recognized that their growth comes not only from creating new products, rethinking their go-to-market strategy, or driving efficiencies across processes and workflows (an "inside-out" view of the world), but also from the system that aligns to their customers’ buying and problem-solving processes (an distinctly different "outside-in" view of the world). Companies like Accenture have recognized the inefficiencies that exist in working in silos and have pivoted to a more horizontal view of the work they do in order to more effectively communicate, deliver, and create value for their customers. That horizontal view of adding more value uses customers and buyers as the design point—not products and services. The Implication? Instead of going to market in a way that uses products and services as the organizing "design point" for adding value to clients, companies are shifting to using customer problems as that design point. This is a massive shift—it couldn’t be any more different. Buyers know it, and they recognize it (so it’s both different and differentiating in the marketplace). Think about it. Companies like Symantec are beginning to recognize that buyer problems often cut across product and service portfolios, requiring a more configured and coordinated engagement, delivery, and measurement approach to the executives and leaders they sell to. They recognize that in order to grow, product, marketing, and sales teams have to all focus and drive value to those buyers in more relevant ways the cut across the silos that often exist. Not only does that need to happen in these revenue-generating functions, but it also needs to happen in all other customer-facing functions as well. For example, delivery and operations teams that support or deliver on "what gets sold" must also work differently.   This new reality creates a major strain inside of companies because they aren’t tooled, organized, or staffed to add value to their customers in this way. In fact, here’s what Steve Bennett, the new CEO of Symantec, says about this challenge: "On our go-to-market strategy what I would say simply [is that] we had talented people everywhere in the world really working hard, but…our system doesn’t work, or probably better said—we don’t have a system. Our process, our technology, the tools we have, our knowledge management—our salesforce is not empowered and freed up to sell."   Steve Bennett, Symantec President and CEO - January 23, 2013, Q3 Earnings and Strategy Direction Conference Call, Source: morningstar Rising to the challenge For many sales leaders, this challenge is felt every day. Complexity and change inside their company, coupled with complexity and change in their client companies, creates inefficiencies at the point of sale. Overcoming these inefficiencies requires cross-functional leadership and teaming as well as a unified focus on driving sales objectives. To facilitate the cross-functional work required, organizations should: Charter a cross-functional team to streamline the horizontal business processes behind sales conversations. Help that team create standards and a definition of sales enablement to coordinate a common approach across the enterprise. Take a holistic approach to scoping and launching initiatives that align content, skills, and tools that salespeople need to be successful.

This year, a team of GP Strategies employees , together with their families and friends, participated in their third 24 Hours of Booty race, a 24-hour bike ride that is aimed to increase public awareness, funds, and support for LIVESTRONG and local cancer organizations such as the Ulman Cancer Fund for Young Adults. We started our team three years ago to support our colleague, Mike Taudt, who was diagnosed with leukemia. The team continues to participate annually in honor of him, as well as family and friends who have been touched by this disease. Some of the proceeds from this event stay locally in Maryland, which was another driver for this particular fundraiser. This year we had 19 members on the team and raised more than $11,600 coming in third place for overall fundraising. We were able to leverage fundraising opportunities with local restaurants, and our team captain, Katie Wirth, raised quite a bit through her annual charity garage sale. Chris Kaplan, Senior Multimedia Developer at GP Strategies, designed our shirts this year, and GP Strategies purchased them for the team. This year, the weather was perfect, spirits were high, and everyone was excited to participate in such an amazing event. The bike ride was challenging, but the charity was motivation for us to reach our individual goals. Several on our team rode more than 100 miles over the course of two days! We already have our 2014 team set up and have a few members signed up. Next year, we hope to raise even more money for this important cause and recruit a few more to join our team to fight cancer and continue to make an impact.

As a global performance improvement company, we have the honor and privilege of partnering with leading organizations to help them accomplish their missions. We are passionate about helping our customers solve their business challenges to produce measurable results.  The following video demonstrates our passion by showcasing examples of what drives us as a company. As the video states, at GP Strategies: We’re at our best, when helping our clients achieve their best. Together, we’re making a meaningful impact on the world. Here are links that illustrate how GP Strategies can help you and your organization reach its highest potential: Create leaders that drive performance Sell more Deliver efficient and sustainable energy Ensure safe products Develop effective practices…and work environments Prepare communities and organizations to mitigate risks Achieve results in complex regulatory arenas

Dear Millennials: You’re Doing It Wrong! If you’ve spent any time in social media in the past year, you’ve noticed that hashtags have become extremely commonplace in almost every single post you come across. Applications like Twitter incorporated hashtag functionality in 2009, and other social applications, like Facebook (2013), Instagram (2011), and LinkedIn (2013), have finally come onboard with these features as well. A hashtag is a word or a phrase prefixed with the symbol #. It is a form of metadata tag. The primary purpose, and the real business value of using hashtags, is for grouping and aggregating online content. Of course, this can be used outside of social media applications as well. Enterprise applications like SharePoint and Yammer are perfect examples of how users might use hashtags for business purposes. Using #Sales or #ProjectManagement allows me to tag any content that is Sales or Project Management related. They also provide a means of grouping such messages, since one can search for the hashtag and get the set of messages that contain it. Simple concept, indeed, even if you are new to the concept. However, we have a major hashtag crisis on our hands, and I’m not even sure everyone recognizes it. Millennials in particular have devalued the meaningfulness of the hashtag by using it as a separate language entirely. It seems there is now an unspoken contest on how many hashtags one can place within a post/picture, etc. or, even worse, how creative one’s own custom hashtag can be. Case in point: Attached is an actual picture from Lebron James’ Instagram account taken during a recent Cowboys game. The last hashtag in the picture is exactly what I’m referring to. Users that clicked on this hashtag will notice there is only one picture on all of Instagram using it. That defeats the entire purpose. I’m not entirely confident any of this behavior will change, but it should be addressed. In fact, I predict hiring managers will start seeing hashtags on résumés in the next five years. In the meantime, this is what people sound like when they don’t use hashtags correctly.

Enterprises continue to become more spread out as the result of globalization and the proliferation of new communications technology. Many businesses have had to adjust employment strategies to ensure that all staff members, regardless of their backgrounds, are actively productive in their positions. This series will help to illustrate the diverse range of satisfaction drivers from different regions around the globe, focusing on many countries that have become economically intertwined over the past several years. Why does job satisfaction matter? It is a critical ingredient in creating a fully engaged workforce. High engagement can yield advantages including better productivity, customer ratings, profitability and retention. On the other hand, disengagement costs businesses an estimated $350 billion each year. Click on the image below to view the full Job Satisfaction infographic.

Past studies have estimated that Millennials will make up one-half of the US workforce by the year 2020. However, new information suggests that Millennials will now make up 75% of the workforce by 2025. Why does this matter? A recent Forbes article by Josh Bersin indicates that Millennials have the opportunity and desire to take on leadership positions, but they don’t feel ready for it. This is a problem. As a business leader tasked with paving the way for the future success of your organization, it’s your job to address this! The good news is I’ve developed 10 tips/areas to help you get started now: Support Mentoring/Coaching - Mentoring and reverse mentoring make up a key element to any Millennial Talent Management program. I’m shocked at how many organizations completely ignore the value of mentoring and executive coaching altogether. This is an easy one to implement and carries minimal costs. Just do it! The most self-aware Millennials will actually seek outside mentoring to ensure support in this area if it’s not offered within the organization. Implement Technology & Social Media - This is part of the Millennial Talent Management program previously discussed. As a business leader, if you don’t play a role in implementing these fundamentals now, you’ll risk losing key talent and eventually be forced to adopt and fall into the late majority and laggards categories while Millennials run all over you (technologically speaking). Understand Project vs. Career Differences - Are you a business leader that suggests a new project every time a Millennial asks you about the next step in their career path? If so, stop it. There’s a big difference. Career path changes usually come with more responsibility, additional functional work assignments and the chance to work with more team members. Additional projects are usually just more of the same work. Ensure Quality of Life - There’s been a lot of research conducted on how important quality of life is to this generation as perceived to other generations. No doubt, that’s certainly true. However, I firmly believe that Millennials are the best at maximizing consumption and maximizing quality of life. Embrace this as a business leader, but make sure consumption/production goals are always met. Be Authentic - Millennials are interested in authenticity, open collaboration and constant feedback (yes, even negative feedback). They are not interested in business leaders posturing, behaving unethically or communicating ineffectively because of office politics. Be careful here. You will lose credibility very quickly if you’re not authentic. Invest in Them - Give them opportunities to advance within the organization. Millennials have no issues making their career growth expectations clear. It’s your job to provide a leadership development plan to get them there. Fully understand #3 before you develop a plan for this one. Accept That Millennials Often Have Diverse Job Experience Over Short Amounts of Time - I remember when I entered the workforce over 15 years ago, it was frowned upon for an individual to have "jumped around" to multiple jobs in a short period of time. The perception was always "Can we count on this person long term?" This is no longer the case, and hiring managers and business leaders alike need to accept this if they’re looking at attracting top millennial talent. Provide Opportunities for Rapid Career Growth - Millennials expect they’ll have to work hard, but they also expect rapid career growth. Possibly more importantly, they expect to be put in a position to succeed at their work assignments so that their skills are widely recognized and rewarded. Rewards may not be in the form of a traditional promotion but a new, unique and exciting work assignment in a completely unrelated area of the organization. Provide Fair Performance-Based Appraisals - Taken from the Bersin article reference above, I believe this is spot on. How many times have you seen a performance-based appraisal for a HiPo (high potential) Millennial rated just "average" or "meets all criteria" when it’s clear they’re a top performer in the organization? On the other side, what about tenured employees that seemingly have no perceived positive impact to the organization or no direct accountability for results, yet are continually rated just as well because of their length of experience? Don’t Treat Them All the Same - Older Millennials are more like Gen X: Not all Millennials are created equal, and as a business leader it’s important to understand that you may need to tailor your leadership approach accordingly. For example, older Millennials may care more about career progression, whereas younger Millennials desire more interesting and varied career paths. There are obviously more than 10 tips to effectively develop millennial talent. To effectively lead Millennials to become successful business leaders, you need to ask, "What matters to you and why?" Interested to see how Millennial you are? For fun, I decided to take the Pew Research Center’s Millennial Quiz and my Millennial score was 69: exactly where I expected to be, as an older Millennial.

Part two of this series illustrates the diverse range of satisfaction drivers from different regions around the globe. In the United States, compensation and relationships with superiors, especially when it comes to strong communications among employees and management, appear to be the biggest drivers of satisfaction.  This is similar in India, where employees look for strong compensation, as well as reasonable workloads and unique organizational cultures. The European workforce seems to be especially interested in positive corporate cultures, as well as the opportunity to test and advance their skills during their employment. Likely the most common preference among workers from a variety of nations and regions is corporate culture, which managers and executives need to fine tune to sustain engagement. Click on the image below to view the full Job Satisfaction infographic.  

A happy workforce will often yield better productivity, customer ratings, profitability and retention, among other advantages. On the other hand, disengaged workers, which make up a high rate of the American workforce, cost businesses an estimated $350 billion each year. Click on the image below to view the full Job Satisfaction infographic.

Part four of this series illustrates the high cost of an unhappy and disengaged workforce. Stress and dissatisfaction often lead to recurring absenteeism and presenteeism; over half of the 550 million working days lost in the U.S. are stress related. A happy workforce will often yield better productivity, customer ratings, profitability and retention, among other advantages. Click on the image below to view the full Job Satisfaction infographic.

There are things an employer can do to increase engagement and improve job satisfaction.  How many items can you check on the list?  Click on the image below to view the full Job Satisfaction infographic.

Pizza parties won’t sustain your bottom-line The Wall Street Journal recently reported that Facebook is building a $120 million, 394-unit housing community a hop skip and jump away from their headquarters in California. According to the article, "Facebook’s sprawling campus…is so full of cushy perks that some employees may never want to go home." All I could think was how much is too much? Sure, perks are important for recruiting the brightest talent — especially young workers in today’s highly competitive labor markets (like the high-tech corridor of Silicon Valley). Perks like free food and a place to sleep can keep workers on site and, in theory, more productive. But we also know from our research that perks may actually keep the wrong (aka disengaged) employees in the organization as well. Click here to read the rest of the article.

The Tin Can API, now officially known as "Experience API" (xAPI), is an e-learning software specification that allows learning content and learning systems to speak to each other in a manner that records and tracks all types of learning experiences. In this video, Bob Pietrantonio and Rick Gentner give a brief introduction into Tin Can API:

Employee Expectations for 2014: Five Times More Likely To Quit Than Be Fired From BlessingWhite Research - Princeton, NJ - December 6, 2014 A new year on the horizon and a new set of resolutions. Employers may well be wondering how many of their staff have "find a new job" on their list of things to accomplish in 2014. Recent economic news confirms that the economy is pursuing its slow recovery, and unemployment numbers are continuing to decline. About 34% of CEOs expect to hire more over the next six months, according to a recent economic outlook survey of US chief executive officers. While we are not yet back to the levels seen in a buoyant economy, employees today feel that they generally have the upper hand in the employer-employee relationship, and this is reflected in their attitudes towards career. A sample of 344 employed US workers reveals that: A substantial majority (72%) believe they personally have the biggest control over their next career move (as opposed to their manager or the company they work for). Their expectation of next career steps is more likely to include a new project or a new assignment (35%) or a move outside the company (23%) before a direct move up the corporate ladder (13%). They are five times more likely to expect to quit their current job than expect facing a layoff (84% vs. 16%). The idea that the immediate manager is the main reason people consider leaving is an outdated concept - three quarters (75%) of respondents do not credit managers with such influence. In general, organizations are seen to care about their employees’ career progression and employees perceive they have decent career opportunities with their current employer. The interesting thing to note here is that the perception the employer cares and the belief that there are opportunities are closely correlated (Pearson’s Correlation .75). Yet, despite the care and attention, a significant portion (44%) of employees would rather be working for themselves—a sense of individualism and entrepreneurship that employees would do well to tap into. Bottom line: People’s attitude towards "careers" is evolving. The perspective is becoming increasingly individualistic and managed outside of the rigid company-driven structures of yesteryear. Progressive companies will learn to enable individuals to craft their own role in the organization based on their personal skills and aspirations. Naturally, this needs to be done within the parameters that drive the company’s vision and business strategies. Equipping managers to navigate this new "career" context is also an important part of the puzzle. Managers can no longer assume they are coaching people up into their own role; rather, managers need to develop purposeful coaching partnerships to prepare team members to meet the organization’s future challenges while tapping into individual skills and aspirations. Companies that fail to manage this evolving dynamic will face increasing retention challenges going forward. [Note: The sample was taken from full-time US employed individuals aged 18 to 60 with high school degrees or better. Data collected in early December 2013 via online survey.] Click here for a link to the article and charts.

Bobby O’Steen discusses trends for managing manufacturing training in today’s economy:

What do a Renaissance painting technique and rapid instructional design have in common? Most of us are familiar with Leonardo da Vinci’s creative genius and his inventions, but few may know about his application of a Renaissance painting technique called sfumato, which he used to paint the famous Mona Lisa. Sfumato is a painting style where there are no harsh outlines and areas blend seamlessly into one another. When I first read this, I thought, "Wow, instructional design is often this way as well, designers creating many different types of training deliverables, using a variety of techniques that blend seamlessly into a particular project throughout the design process." Michael J. Gelb, in his book How to Think Like Leonardo da Vinci, mentions the sfumato technique as one of da Vinci’s seven principles referring to the acceptance of ambiguity and change, moving forward with distinct purpose but also accepting there will be uncertainty. da Vinci’s application of sfumato to his painting allowed the viewer to see more than what was actually painted, implying something requiring deeper study and reflection. Embracing ambiguity Software advances have been valuable tools for instructional designers, simplifying development and increasing interactivity while offering shortened lead times. However, these tools can have a downside, often causing what I like to call "design discomfort" because they propel projects forward so quickly, while still in the early, imperfect development phase. It can be stressful to produce under these conditions. Embracing ambiguity and applying a sfumato mindset to instructional design offers us the opportunity of more creativity and freedom, driving us to move past the discomforts of imperfection. By giving clients an opportunity to stand back and take in the materials much as an art admirer would view the Mona Lisa, it allows us to integrate their unique interpretation of what they "see" into the design process. It supercharges the power of conceptualization—encouraging communication of what is missing from a fledgling work product and what is needed around those hazy edges. It gives designers the opportunity to fulfill the clients’ vision and create a superior product. It would seem that sfumato is now becoming a part of the way we work today. Doug Harward, CEO and Founder of Training Industry, Inc., wrote about the trend of imperfection in training development in Training Industry Quarterly, Winter 2013: "The key movement here is toward designing programs that are ‘good enough’ to meet the goals of the plan, not overly designed or too perfected." Accepting a degree of imperfection while using rapid design development gives us an opportunity to shine by leaving space for the clients’ imagination and interpretation, and then applying our experience and expertise, just as da Vinci wielded his paintbrush, to merge with the client vision to create a masterpiece something well beyond the original, fledgling product. How to pronounce the word sfumato    

It’s that time of year again; time for resolutions and reflecting. 2013 was a great year for the GP Strategies Blog, we began offering more digestible content through podcasts and videos, and thanks to your shares and engagement, readership is up 84 percent! As technology continues to evolve, our goal for 2014 is to continue to share insights and experiences from our industry experts, making them available in formats that can be more easily accessed where and when you need them. As you plan and implement your own business resolutions for the New Year, here is a snapshot of our most viewed blog posts, videos and podcasts from 2013, providing a few tips and trends to support a successful strategy and to help you make a bigger impact through the work that you do. Best wishes for a prosperous and Happy New Year! Best Blog Posts: Seven Characteristics of Decision Making by Mike Koper Storytelling Brings Training to Life by Karen Sieczka 10 Tips for Developing Millennial Talent - NOW! by Billy Biggs What is Employee Engagement? Infographic: Trust, Leadership and Employee Engagement by GP Strategies Crossing the Chasm Between Sales and the Learning Function by Brian Lambert Best Videos: Qualities of a Great Leader - From the Front Line Together…Making a Meaningful Impact on the World Importance of Implementing a Millennial Talent Management Program Telecommuting and Its Effect on Employee Engagement Exploring Mobile Learning Technology Best Podcasts: The Five Levels of Listening Social Learning: Trust and Integrity in a Global Workforce Learning Analytics The Hidden Benefits of Cloud Computing Communication Needed Before Collaboration Can Begin What topics would you like to see covered on the blog this year? Leave your suggestions in the comments section below.