Becoming a great communicator, leader, and manager, is heavily reliant on soft skills like emotional intelligence, time management, listening, adaptability - and more. Soft skills can be trained in the same way that hard skills can - and soft skills are applicable in any position. Learn everything you need to know about soft skills training in our new infographic!

The World Economic Forum released their 2025 Future of Jobs Report that shows employers expect nearly 40% of workers' core skills to change by 2030. As new processes and automation advance quickly, technical skills are becoming outdated faster than ever.  Top 5 Core Skills, as Reported by WEF  Analytical Thinking  Resilience, Flexibility, and Agility  Leadership  Creative Thinking  Motivation and Self-Awareness  Notice anything peculiar about that list? Interestingly...the top five core skills reported as most necessary for employees are all soft skills. How are you addressing soft skills at your organization?   Download BizLibrary’s Guide to Soft Skills Training and keep your employees agile today! 

As your network of channel partners, resellers, and other third parties increases, managing product training doesn’t get any easier. However, establishing a plan for distributing training content is essential to ensuring your products are properly understood, marketed, and sold. This guide provides technical considerations to help you build a plan for distributing training content across a variety of systems. You’ll learn: What to consider from a technical point of view before starting How to create a content distribution strategy across the ecosystem Ways to streamline your training content management How to ensure each learner has access to the latest, most up-to-date version How to gain insights into course usage to inform strategic decisions

Are you missing the opportunity to deliver training to franchisees, manufacturers, suppliers, resellers or your own customers?  Learning, shared objectives, skills, and behaviors are more important than ever to your organization's contingent workforce, yet many are failing at this.    Read Totara Learning’s Extended Enterprise Insights Guide to discover how to create successful learning programs for workers both inside and outside your organization, including:  What audiences organizations need to consider when they are creating a learning program. The business benefits of delivering training to the extended enterprise. How to manage extended enterprise learning.          Download your guide today to discover more about extended enterprise learning. 

I can recall standing in front of students and posing questions when I was early in my career, and not getting any responses. Have you encountered this before? Engagement and participation are common goals facilitators and trainers attempt to achieve in every facilitation, but it is not given that learners will be eager to participate. In our role as facilitators, we are responsible for creating environments where our students feel comfortable contributing and sharing ideas. To take it a step further, we seek to create environments where all feel valued as contributors. I call this environment "the learning community." When building the learning community, we often start at a unique disadvantage in that our students do not know one another well and are not accustomed to communicating, much less sharing, with each other. They may be new to an organization, from different departments, or geographically dispersed. So how do facilitators and trainers build the learning community when a group of strangers come together? Here are some tips to consider.

Introduction When Peter McLaughlin and I first began talking about the topics of communication and feedback specifically, we quickly realized we had several things in common. We both felt that we were not particularly effective in giving feedback. In fact, we felt that we were pretty bad. We enjoyed the challenge and the positive results that come with a successful feedback conversation. We wondered why we had not naturally learned to give feedback. We agreed that if we were provided with a roadmap or model for giving feedback, we would have performed much more effectively in such situations. Looking back at particular examples, we both had a sense of delight from the positive encounters, and a sense of dread over the sessions that left us feeling discouraged, beaten down and lackluster. So why did we begin a project filled with such negative emotion? The answer—both to improve our own feedback skills and to examine what it would take to teach a new perspective and help "turn the opinion tide" that has made feedback a dreaded negative topic. Who doesn’t want to get better? Have you ever known anyone who said, "Nah, I’ll just stay mediocre and by the way, I don’t want a raise, promotion or exciting project…" Probably not. Our internal drive propels us to strive, learn and improve.

Receiving feedback can be one of the most uncomfortable yet essential parts of professional life. Whether it's a passing comment from a manager or a formal review, feedback often hits harder than expected—sometimes feeling more like criticism than guidance. But why does it sting so much, and how can we navigate it more effectively? Understanding the emotional and neurological impact of feedback is the first step in transforming it from a source of anxiety into a tool for growth.

In today’s evolving workplace, employee recognition is more important than ever. While salary, benefits, and career growth are key retention factors, a strong culture of appreciation can be the difference between high engagement and high turnover. Download our latest insights on non-cash recognition programs to learn how companies are striking the perfect balance in rewarding employees—beyond just paychecks. Discover strategies to boost morale, retain top talent, and create a workplace where employees feel valued. Why recognition matters in today’s workforce How non-cash rewards drive engagement & loyalty Best practices for impactful employee appreciation Get your free download now and start building a recognition-driven workplace!

Risks that are prepared for can be prevented or mitigated - but a hidden risk can result in a blindsiding that can be hard, if not impossible, to recover from. So what is a hidden risk?   BizLibrary is bringing you the inside scoop on five different elements of hidden risks - what they are, how to identify them, and how to protect your organizations against them.

Getting started is easier than you think. There’s a lot you can do with simple metrics and the data you have right now. In this eGuide, you'll: Explore five steps to help you get started with learning analytics Understand different technologies—such as xAPI— that can support your learning analytics program Find the right approach for your learning analytics program

This is the third installment of the five-part blog series about the The All-New TrainingMagNetwork.com Open Learning Environment. At Training Magazine Network, we capture the crumbs of insights as they happen. This level of self-awareness enables our members to keep track of their train of thought. While in webinars, reading white papers, watching videos, etc., members can quickly record the ripple of their insights. They also encourage real-time noting, sharing and tracking of other members' insights.   Savor the moment. As members go through all types of content that they find interesting through the help of a powerful search engine, they are constantly encouraged to record their insights as it happens. The key idea is to allow them to document what piqued their interest at the moment. Their learning preferences and interest areas are captured by the system. This provides them a unique perspective of their pursuit of expertise. Why Evaluate Insight? The idea behind evaluating one's insight is established by a huge quantum of studies. Organizations discover that giving appropriate feedback enhances personnel's ability to grow. As a matter of fact, neglecting a good evaluation or feedback mechanism is a recipe for disaster. According to Jane Bozarth "We often treat evaluation as an afterthought, focus on measures that offer little real information, or, when the effort looks difficult, just don't do evaluation at all. In looking at evaluation strategies, choose those that will get you what you need. Are you trying to prove results, or drive improvement? And above all, remember: some evaluation is better than none."  A founder of Triad Consulting Group and a lecturer at Harvard Law School, Sheila Heen delivers a talk on the importance of feedback. Giving the right kind of feedback takes center stage in sharing and tracking of other people's insights. Technology-Enhanced Feedback Mechanism  There are a lot of advantages in using technology as a feedback mechanism. First of all, the time and distance constraint is easily overcome. A good LMS (Learning Management System) can easily incorporate feedback mechanisms like forums where learners can discuss the ripples of insight.   Through this mechanism, peer learners can easily assess and give feedback on each other's ideas. This can be personalized even in a large group. On top of that, real-time tracking of feedback is easy with fast data transfer.    Insights Leading to Path to Expertise (Path2X)   The Training Magazine Network just released the first-of-its-kind member service we call Path to Expertise or Path2X. It incorporates a technology-enhanced feedback mechanism.

As the business world continues to change, so do organizations and their learning functions. Whether you’re developing classroom instruction, an e-learning course, or an on-demand performance support solution, following sound instructional design processes will help you be more successful.  When an organization needs training solutions, the instructional designer must understand the business and individual needs that underlie the training initiative. Download ATD’s Foundations of Instructional Design: Methodologies and Learning Theories guide to explore through the basics of this process, the pros and cons of different approaches, and more.

While organizations around the world are spending billions of dollars on training, most of that investment is being wasted. Here’s what you can do to make sure your sales training initiatives add up to long-term results. Have you ever observed a sales representative during a call and thought, "How can this be the same person who did so well during training? Why aren’t they doing what they were taught?" They’ve been through the training and learned the skills—intellectually they know what they should do—but now that they’re back on the job, they’ve fallen into old habits and behaviors. The fact is, this situation is more often the rule than the exception. Data collected by the consulting firm ES Research has shown that 85 to 90 percent of sales training fails to translate into a lasting improvement in productivity. So what’s keeping the training from moving sales professionals from knowing to doing? Here are 4 of the most common reasons most sales training fails.

Training and safety professionals have long been trained to respond to workplace accidents. However, the field has evolved to become more about prevention and hazard identification before an accident can ever occur.   Conducting a job hazard analysis helps both employers and employees identify potential dangers in the workplace, making it easier to prepare against occupational hazards, from the most common to the most severe.   Download this white paper to learn about the four questions to ask during any job hazard analysis and see how SafetySkills can help you take this important step toward protecting your employees.

I am proud to share that in a few weeks, Training Magazine Network will release a new first-of-its kind member service. Our research confirms this is brand-new. We call it Path to Expertise or Path2X. I am humbled by the experience and learning during the Path2X platform creation and making it available to our members. Thanks to everyone who has helped make this vision a reality. Path2X has these key elements.   1) Power of the Prompt Questions With over 90,000 TMN members asking questions in their search activities, we curate and share these questions with the whole community. These prompt questions get crowd-sourced. We refer to them as, "exploratory thinking," "thinking aloud" or "intense curiosity." As the saying goes, "the solution is possible if we ask the right questions."   It's challenging to formulate these questions and if we reuse and repurpose all of them including the search results, it would save time and add more context to the learning.   2) Freedom to Learn One's Interest Areas We allow members to follow their interests and passions openly through access to unbundled and unrestricted sources of content.   Training magazine is a 40-year-old company. It has developed the best-of-breed resource materials in the world of training. Yet, the breadth and depth of knowledge required by learners surpass our present capabilities to provide this to our members. So, we unshackled our thinking, pushed beyond our current boundaries and uncovered a path for learners to have far-reaching access to varied learning.   We published guest blogs - now 50,000 and growing each day. Our learners deserve to enjoy the abundance of open content from all other sources.   3) Ripple Effects of Insights Encourage real-time insights noting, sharing and tracking.   Savor the moment. As members go through all types of content that they find interesting through the help of a powerful search engine, they are constantly encouraged to record their insights as it happens. The key idea is to allow them to document what they find interesting at the moment. Their learning preferences and interest areas are captured by the system. This provides them a unique perspective of their pursuit of expertise.   In TMN, we capture the ripples of insights, those small and micro instances of learning - as they happen. While in webinars, reading white papers, watching videos, etc. members can quickly record the ripple of their insights. They also share and view other members' insights.   4) Trending and Patterns of Insights are Predictors of Expertise Areas Articulate your expertise/digital tracker.   I like the book Show Your Work by Jane Bozarth. It suggests a profound change of our outlook. When we share our work, we actually learn a lot better. I recall a story from a toxic waste company client about how they apply "Chalk Talk." After each training they ask participants to use chalk and blackboard (may be flipcharts, white boards and markers) to talk about what they have learned.   This is a powerful self-learning process that enables the learners to articulate what they know and correct themselves along the way. Let's call this the digital tracker.   At TMN, we allow members to capture trends and patterns. They discover, learn and track what they are good at and they show it off in the "Trending Report."   5) Celebrate and Stand Out as Experts and Specialists Feedback to self, peers and significant leaders.   Mobile apps and digital watches are so good at this. Their entry into the market is by providing people immediate/instant feedback - whether they are walking, running or consuming calories. The key is feedback for people to correct and achieve their goals. In the Path2X (Path to Expertise), our members achieve this through Path2X eShare.   TMN members can share with friends, peers, leaders and if they wish, in the world of social media like Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook. We encourage TMN members to announce and celebrate their accomplishments. What is the single most compelling Benefit to TMN Members? The new world of learning is open, limitless, abundant and exponential. It is our ardent hope that TMN members experience first-hand this new learning environment. As they discover possibilities, gain insights into their expertise and interest areas and showcase their achievements, we strongly sense that members will eagerly pass on this breakthrough in learning environments to their own learners - helping them to learn better and faster.  

Are you struggling to keep your training engaging with the same old Powerpoint slides? Would you like to know tips and techniques that can make even the most boring of PPT courses into immensely captivating learning experiences? This guide has just that! Download the guide and learn how to:  Create courses that can impact revenue by up to 30%  Improve learner engagement by 100%  Double your course completion rate!

How many minutes of your day do you spend worrying about making a mistake at work, stressing out about workplace politics, checking out of superficial meetings or over-planning and analyzing without taking action? If you are anything like the majority of people, chances are various stressful thoughts, fears and unhealthy judgments pop up in your head and take away from your energy and productivity. In our 17 years of working with businesses we have found that in order to keep these stressors at bay, we have to be intentional about where we focus our attention and what lens we use to process information. We like to think of that filter as our mindset, and we have dedicated our work to helping professionals of all levels, industries and personalities choose a mindset that helps them be more productive and happier at work. As psychologist and researcher, Carol Dweck brilliantly points out in her book "Mindsets are just beliefs. They are powerful beliefs, but they’re just something in your mind, and you can change your mind." (Dweck, Mindset: Psychology of Success, 2008). "

According to a study by Bersin by Deloitte, organizations with senior leaders who coach can effectively and frequently improve business results by 21% compared to those who never coach. This infographic will cover the seven skills needed to help managers and leaders improve their ability to coach their teams. Click below to download this Infographic.

With the changes happening in the working landscape, from remote work to skill gaps, companies are having to move away from the old command-driven leadership practices. Managers are shifting to more of a supportive model where they offer guidance, and their employees learn how to adapt to change more easily.  Developing effective coaching skills is critical to organizational success. Whether you’re developing your employees or working to improve your own skills and capabilities, effective coaching skills impact business results.  In this infographic, you’ll learn:  Why coaching skills are critical to the success of your organization  Seven skills to develop to help turn managers and leaders into coaches  When coaching is most effective

Mustering the courage to present confidently in front of others is hard enough, but when it comes to actually engaging an audience and managing their participation, nervous and novice presenters either usually freak out, forget to add interaction, or both. And there’s another, lesser-known but equally important issue: Audiences can struggle with interactions in presentations, too, feeling uncomfortable participating and not knowing what is expected of them. Why must engaging with your audience be so difficult?

The COVID-19 pandemic has had profound—and probably lasting—impacts throughout society, affecting how users consume learning and how learning and development (L&D) teams deliver it. The necessary shift to remote work has made digital and live online learning an invaluable tool for learners and L&D teams alike.  The 2021 survey of 1,276 L&D professionals by Adobe and Training Magazine Network, "What is the future of digital learning in 2021 and beyond?" found that 42 percent of respondents envision using more digital options this year, indicating that digital learning is here to stay as part of a dynamic, hybrid learning model. This will involve a blend of live online, digital self-paced and face-to-face learning aimed, most often, at internal employee upskilling. As blended delivery grows, companies are looking to modern platforms and features to increase personalization in ways that make learning more robust and more effective.  Click below to download the white paper.

The learning ecosystem is rapidly evolving, and the changing technologies and growing resources available to help individuals learn is likely a bit overwhelming for your Learning and Development team. With the only guarantee being that change is inevitable, how do you build a training solution that will meet your organization’s needs 6, 12, or 24 months down the road? Discover how open-source technology can help you create a flexible and future-proof training program for your organization.  In this White Paper, you'll learn: The evolving role and capabilities of the Learning Management System (LMS) within the larger learning ecosystem The leading open-source learning platforms and how to determine which is the right fit for your needs How to maximize the interoperability of open-source to extend and future-proof your learning program

Quality management (QM) appears in many forms in learning and development. When facilitating a course or conference session on quality for L&D professionals, I like to ask for a show of hands as I read out different options for how their organizations might handle quality management. I’ve also conducted an online poll, which focused on the reviews, not entire quality management systems. I consider the poll unofficial due to the small sample size (139 votes) and the unverified answers. However, it still provides insight into what organizations are doing, and the results are consistent with my experience and the answers I receive when I facilitate. Of the L&D professionals who answered my poll, nearly half (48 percent) said they conducted peer reviews, meaning their fellow designers checked their work. At 30 percent, the second-highest option was an internal dedicated team for quality management (in which "dedicated" was defined as a team that only works on quality issues for an L&D team). Next was self-review at 19 percent. Finally, only 2 percent had an external dedicated team.

A Letter from the Author Dear friends and colleagues: The gamification of corporate learning has become a hot topic of discussion over the past year in industry publications and blogs, and certainly among talent development professionals. Why is there so much interest? Of course, everyone will have their own point of view on that question. Mine is this: despite the allure of traditional elearning from a cost and ease-of-deployment perspective, numerous organizations’ workforces have not consumed that training with much gusto. There seems to be a lot of consensus in the industry that most traditional elearning provides only modest learner engagement. That’s a big problem for talent development professionals and the workforces we serve. We know engagement is a critical success factor in skill development, and without it very little performance improvement is likely to result from the training. Most of you who are currently thinking about game-based elearning are doing so to address the engagement issue. But what about the learning results? What about the comparative performance impact of game-based elearning versus the traditional elearning most organizations deploy today? In this white paper, we will explore those questions, and provide a rationale that I believe many of you can use to benchmark the impact of game-based learning in your organization. Bryan L. Austin Chief Game Changer