Your journey and career can seem confusing and hard to define. Think about where you are and how you got there, and you’ll see that career paths tend to be crooked and accidental. Each person is unique and will have interest in their career, changing over time. No one can guarantee their future, but laying out a Career Map primes the pump and changes the way everyone sees opportunities. Use this fillable template to strategically and intentionally think about your Talent GPS career. Presented by: Lou Russell, Director of Learning, Russell Martin & Associates (a division of Moser Consulting) Click here to order.

In the previous tip we talked about sharing your insights. In this fifth installement of the five-part blog series about The All-New TrainingMagNetwork.com Open Learning Environment, we will talk about presenting yourself as an expert and specialist of a specific field.   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.   On the other hand, people with whom members share their achievements are likewise provided the facility for feedback by sharing ideas and comments. Mobile apps and digital watches are so good at this. Their entry to the market is by providing people immediate/instant feedback - whether they are walking, running or consuming calories.   Feedback is key for people to correct and achieve their goals. In the Path2X (Path to Expertise), our members accomplish this through Path2X eShare. Path to Expertise Progress The classic resume is static. It is insufficient because it fails to provide the reviewer a better perspective of the capabilities and experiences of an applicant. With teams, leaders have no immediate way to assess capacities,  status of ongoing learning and new skills developed by team members. They have to wait for evaluation and assessments which may happen only once a year.   In Training Mag Network we try to provide a dynamic way for leaders and members to update interests and skills development. TNM members share their Path2X progress with their leaders, bosses, friends, peers and team. These people are able to comment and have discussions with the member/owner of the report. They can drill down into what resources the TMN member has "actually" studied, reviewed and submitted insights to. Members can share the Path2X report as often as they like. The Path2X Progress Report helps the member "celebrate, announce and demonstrate" their deliberate efforts in building skills and expertise.   The graphics below is an illustration of the Path2X Progress Report. Seth Godin talks about connecting with the customers and standing out as an expert in this short clip of an interview with Bryan Elliott. In the world where competition is the norm, how do you stand out against everybody else? Nowadays, it's not enough to be good at something or be connected to someone, you have to standout. According to William Arruda and Kirsten Dixson, "In today's workplace, creativity has trumped loyalty; individuality has replaced conformity; pro-activity has replaced hierarchy. Those who succeeded were aware of their talents and confident enough to use them to stand out and consistently deliver value to their teams.

Yes, change is hard and it keeps happening to us in today’s hyper-complex, uncertain, competitive, high stakes world. Consider these alarming statistics: 75% of projects fail 71% of companies do not feel their leaders are able to lead them into the future 87% of employees worldwide are not engaged at work In summary, projects are a disaster, leadership is diabolical and people are severely disengaged. A piece of friendly advice: STOP stockpiling statistical knowledge about how bad things are "out there." Dwelling on this is more likely to evoke a "I give up, why bother" reaction. Rather, take a thorough, honest inventory of what’s going on "in here." What are you doing, or not doing that might be adding or detracting from positive change? 

Although compliance training is an important part of improving the business, it isn't seen as an effective channel for employee development. Instead, it's seen as a task that needs to be completed. Organizations need to rethink their compliance training and take a more strategic approach to make it more engaging, impactful and directly related to the goals of the business.  In this eBook, Brandon Hall Group explains how to develop a strategy that connects compliance training to employee development to drive your business forward, mitigate risk and minimize compliance costs and fines.

Mental health was once a taboo topic in the workplace, but many organizations are beginning to realize the importance of prioritizing employee mental health and well-being. Although attitudes toward mental health are changing, it can still be hard to know how to offer meaningful support, have conversations about mental health, and get employees and leaders invested in this effort. Incorporating training into a mental health initiative at your organization is a great place to start. Not only can training be used to educate your workforce on stress management techniques and coping strategies, it can help your managers develop skills to support employee well-being and overcome the stigma surrounding mental health. In this ebook, you'll learn key elements for building a strong mental health initiative at your organization. You'll also learn: How to use your training program to support your efforts Common myths about mental health and how to overcome them How to get buy-in throughout the organization for this initiative.

Employee mental health has long been a taboo topic in the workplace, but there has been a recent shift at organizations to cater to health and wellness of employees. This shift has resulted in the need for all employees to be able to recognize the signs of mental illness, know how to offer support, and how to handle the tough conversations that can stem from discussing mental health. In this ebook, you’ll learn: Key elements for building a strong mental health initiative at your organization Common myths and misconceptions about mental health and how to overcome them How to get buy-in throughout the organization for a mental health initiative

Employee mental health has long been a taboo topic in the workplace, but there has been a recent shift at organizations to cater to health and well-being of employees. This shift has resulted in the need for all employees to be able to recognize the signs of mental illness, know how to offer support, and how to handle the tough conversations that can stem from discussing mental health.  In this ebook, you’ll learn:  Key elements for building a strong mental health initiative at your organization Common myths and misconceptions about mental health and how to overcome them How to get buy-in throughout the organization for a mental health initiative

ILT represents 70% of training today. Efficiently managing it is crucial, but it is fundamentally different from e-learning: it involves more complex back-office processes and a wider range of resources, and as such cannot be managed with the same tools. This checklist will guide you through the elements needed to improve the efficiency of your Instructor-Led Training activity.  It will help you assess the performance of your current technology in each domain.

Do your employees really know what you're trying to accomplish as a team and an organization? New research links organizational underperformance and failure to meet key objectives with rampant employee confusion about Key Results. 85% of organizations say Key Results are not clearly defined such that employees at all levels can engage. Download "Clarity Is Key" to discover the impact that clear communication has on results--and use this information to guide your team effectively, boost results, engage employees, and reach goals faster than ever.

As a learning program leader, people look to you for answers. What keeps learners engaged with course material? Which courses need new or updated content? How can we improve our test prep experience and help candidates feel more confident? Yet finding the answers to these questions isn’t always easy. If you’re ready to learn a new way forward from fellow leaders who’ve been there before, this is the eBook for you.  We talked to 5 Chief Learning Officers and VPs of Learning at the country’s most innovative associations and certification providers and asked for the secrets to their success. Download this free eBook to find out what they are!

Gone are the days when advanced degrees and decades of experience were the only indicators of a stand-out candidate. Today, 80 percent of CEOs seek a much broader range of skills in their company ’s workforce. New research from the Institute for the Future, in conjunction with Cornerstone OnDemand, shows that candidates now must possess not only the technical skills that enable them to engage with constantly evolving technologies, but also the social skills that make them forward-thinking, team-oriented and goal-driven. To attain these skills, workers at every level must become lifelong learners, constantly self-evaluating and finding opportunities to gain new skills. For employers, hiring or nurturing these workers internally presents challenges. From a recruiting perspective, knowledge gaps are making open positions increasingly difficult to fill. According to a new report from Deloitte Insights, more than half of employers say they consistently can’t fill open positions, because without a minimum number of years experience or the right certifications, applicants are simply not qualified enough on paper. Internal candidates face a similar obstacle—they often lack the skills needed to make the leap to a new role. Still, HR teams have to somehow fill over six million vacant jobs. To do so, they’ll have to rethink not only how they hire, but also how they enable learning and development within their organizations. They’ll have to start evaluating internal and external candidates based on their potential, seeking workers with a combination of soft and hard skills that make them adaptable to change, eager to learn and full of promise. How can employers identify and nurture these individuals? In this guidebook, you'll learn what to look for in new workers, and how to help your current workforce develop the skills they need to thrive. With seven articles on everything from hiring the most auspicious candidates, to helping employees build skills for stepping into open leadership positions, our featured articles will enable your organization to cultivate your existing team, onboard promising talent and stay ahead of the skills gap by embracing the idea of lifelong learning. Click below to download this guidebook

Coaching has grown more popular than any other developmental technique in recent years. Today, most organizations need leaders at all levels who can drive rapid change. The more an organization can make every leader an effective coach, the more fluidly it will adapt to today’s fast-moving business environment. With the rapid changes in markets and technology, learning and upskilling have become everyday activities. Coaching is a great tool to nurture talent on an ongoing basis.  This guide offers twelve coaching best practices that organizations can share with leaders and employees. Each best practice is accompanied by reading recommendations from the getAbstract library.

What are the obligations of managers? The answer to this question varies from organization to organization based upon a number of factors such as industry, culture, department, skill level of the team, etc. Regardless of the organization, at the very heart of this question lies a dilemma. If you need compliance, or supervision of employees, the things your organization needs managers to do well has a clear, well-delineated set of guidelines and boundaries. On the other hand, if the answer leans towards the successful achievement of goals, the things you need managers to do well are probably less defined. The objective of this eBook is to offer some insight into what we see as emerging principles in employee coaching for managers. The marketplace is changing, and so are our workplaces. While many traditional coaching models provide excellent guidance, they may not fully prepare our managers for success, without some modifications, for successful coaching experiences with today's workforce.  

The LEO Learning research team has compiled a helpful list of external resources that we’ve found useful in understanding the power and delivery of collaborative learning in practice. These resources were first distributed in the October 14 webinar below.  For the greatest benefit, watch the recoded webinar as well.  But even if you don't, be sure to download this valuable list.  Our gift to you, from Training Mag Network and LEO Learning.

All of the assumptions in our "Common-Sense" article are based upon a well-tested psychological principle, such as Maslow's heirarchy of needs, the Yerkes-Dodson law, psychology's law of effect, the Hawthorne effect, Herzbergs's two-factor theory, and even a few well-tested hypotheses of our own. But don't let the names intimidate you. These are simple, verifiable, ideas—the kind of assumptions you make everyday about the people you supervise. Each of the concepts we discuss is an example of what we call tested common sense assumptions made about human nature that have been empirically verified through psychological research or through actual application in the "real world" of the workplace.

Competency-based training should be an important part of any great employee development program. Simply put, competency-based training is a learning model where employees must reach a certain level of knowledge and skill on a particular topic before advancing to the next task. However, selecting which competencies to develop in your employees can be a difficult decision. In this eBook, we’ve further outlined what a competency is, how to define them, and how to implement competency-based training at your organization. In this eBook, you’ll learn: The competency cycle and how to use it to develop a successful competency-based training program How competencies can mature through different job roles are your organization How to create and utilize job profiles to assess skill gaps

What Do We Mean by Connected Learning? Connected learning is a term we are using to describe the convergence of two critically important themes in the evolution of digitally enabled learning—two themes that are combining to deliver game-changing opportunities for learning and organizational performance, right now. Digital learning has come a long way. An industry that started out with a focus on providing efficiency, consistency, and increasing reach and speed (what we sometimes call ‘digital learning 1.0) is maturing into a fully networked, data-led and measured set of tools, processes and deeply relevant and engaging learning content for every learner at their point of need. These are learning ecosystems that also now finally put the learners and their powerful and personal relationships with each other in the center of the picture-building again, the way people have learned for many millennia—is this digital learning 2.0 perhaps? Click below to download the eBook.  

Remote work is changing how you learn. While 60% of surveyed L&D professionals expected to implement a virtual training strategy before COVID-19, remote work has drastically enhanced the speed of implementation for most organizations. Excitingly, this experience is recontextualizing learning and knowledge-sharing in unparalleled ways.   Download this infographic to have a quick reference of the research presented in the article, The New Normal: Connecting with The Remote Workforce.

For years, organizations researched, explored and discussed transforming content to a more learner-centric, multi-modal, personalized environment. But the actual transition has been arduously slow. Although the workforce has grown increasingly mobile, remote and dispersed, most learning organizations continue to focus on in-person, instructor-led training. Of course, 2020 and the onset of a global pandemic upended everyone’s perception of "business as usual" and kicked all of these trends into overdrive. Learners expect the technology and content associated with learning to behave the way technology and information behave in their everyday lives. They want personalization, context and relevance, and they want it immediately.  Download the free eBook by Brandon Hall Group and Xyleme

Online training is broken, with next to no engagement, poor completion rates — and you can forget about ROI. To get the learning outcomes you’re after, you need to make sure learners move from a passive mindset to an active one. Instead of just reading information or watching videos, learners need to take action.  Shifting from content-based training to action-based training can increase your training engagement and completion rates by more than 2,000%. This infographic outlines the benefits of action-based learning and how it can help create greater impact. 

What will you find in this report? 2020 was an uncertain time for everyone. Corporate training has faced rapid changes that have revolutionized the way we learn and develop ourselves at work. In this report, we draw conclusions on the challenges and contradictions associated with skill training in organizations from a survey of 1,500 HR professionals and employees across various sectors. The analysis of the data obtained reveals some tensions between the different actors within the corporate training sector, but also points to some common ground and key trends for 2021. Download the report and access:  Data obtained from surveys conducted on 1,500 HR professionals and employees from diverse sectors, in the United States, Mexico, France, and Spain Graphs and infographics that reveal where there is alignment and misalighment between the parties involved in corporate training Case studies of well-known organizations that support the conclusions drawn from respondents' answers Opinions of professionals and experts in talent management and development fields

Employees give an NPS of -29 to their organizations’ online training, despite an increase in digital investment More than 1,000 professionals from HR, L&D, and HR Consulting participated in Gamelearn's second edition of its annual report. Their answers were contrasted with those of employees to identify misalignments. And guess what? Some serious contradictions have been detected. According to the results of our survey, over 60% of companies have increased their online training budget compared to last year. However, professionals rated the online training programs they’ve received with an NPS of -29, clearly a failing grade. But it's not all contradictions, almost everyone surveyed agreed on what kind of solutions would provide both the engagement employees need to learn and the results organizations need to grow. Want to find out what they are? Click below to access the full report.

Talking with the C-suite, having a seat at the table, being a trusted advisor…whatever you call it, this form of success only comes from credibility fostered by a reputation of consistently giving good advice.   That requires being accurate, intuitive, and trustworthy - attributes that can be built only over time. To foster that perception and, thus, gain access to the C-suite, Learning and Development (L&D) leaders must understand the business, see the big picture, and be able to tap subject matter experts to provide the granularity required to ensure that each development activity adds value. Development for development’s sake is not an option. The inkling that L&D could be a valuable business consultant begins with small things—successes forged despite adversity—and grows with consistent improvements until, eventually, the C-suite routinely seeks its input.   With guidance and tips from the Training Top 10 Hall of Fame organizations, this white paper will help you develop what it takes to propel yourself and your department into the confidence of senior leaders, reliably and consistently.

Talking with the C-suite, having a seat at the table, being a trusted advisor…whatever you call it, this form of success only comes from credibility fostered by a reputation of consistently giving good advice. This white paper will help you develop what it takes to propel yourself and your department into the confidence of senior leaders, reliably and consistently.