The metaphor of "The Lazy Trainer" reminds us that the less we teach, the more learners have the chance to learn for themselves. Unfortunately, a significant number of trainers and designers are paranoid. They lack faith or trust that the learners can provide or discover the "right answers and content." This limits the possibilities for effective learning, driven by learners. Companies are also deprived of the opportunity to reduce costs while increasing the speed of training.

Coaching is a unique development solution because it allows the individual, to customize the solution to best suit their individual needs; and, a customized solution may be more likely to facilitate success. In the past, we could provide nearly any coaching solution, and measure the success of that solution based upon participant’s self-reports of satisfaction.

As enterprise organizations expand to support a globally dispersed employee base, developing effective learning environments that can be delivered anywhere, anytime becomes a significant challenge. Implementing learning management systems and basic online learning tools has fallen short in providing an engaging learning experience that ensures the effectiveness of enterprise training programs.

Everywhere you look, eLearning content is begging to be captured and put online. Every time an expert gives a lecture, an executive keynotes a conference, a techie gives a chalk talk, a product manager briefs a sales team, or a manager hosts an orientation, valuable content is being created. The trick? How to capture, enliven, deploy, and track it for internal or external audiences. New online tools make it easy to capture your organization's best presentations and most engaging storytellers, turning them into rich, interactive learning content that's available 24/7 from any browser or mobile device.

On one hand, we say we honor evaluation, that we are eager for evidence and data. On the other hand, most reported practice is far from enthusiastic about metrics. Today’s economic climate has increased accountability in organizations and required training and performance professionals to look in a data-driven way at their influence. At the same time, technology-delivered training, learning management systems and a host of tools has increased possibilities for data collection. Are organizations using these tools? And if so, to what ends?

One advantage of the virtual classroom is the potential for global reach. Participants no longer need to fly long distances to attend a class; instead, we can bring the classroom to them! However, when incorporating international participants into your virtual training classes, it’s important to design sessions with global audiences in mind.

We all use a variety of thinking styles in our daily lives, but we tend to favor some and rarely use others-and that hurts our ability to make good decisions. Taking a thinking assessment can help you find the right balance, so you can make the best choices, in life and at work.

When you ask an SME, "What should learners learn from the content?", the response is usually "all" or "everything". This is the OLD RELIGION where the data is "compressed and dumped" for learners to learn. This is costly and detrimental to the performance of workers.

earning organizations are facing a technology wake-up call as they realize that most of their content doesn't translate well, if at all, to mobile devices. The typical reaction is to initiate one-off projects for converting desktop courses, applications, and their Flash based components, per the specs of every major device platform.

With so many learning experiences, techniques and devices to choose from, the course designer can be like a gourmet cook, carefully choosing just the right combination to achieve the desired results. There is no excuse for the overuse of lecture as the primary and often only technique.

Brain research is pointing to fresh insights about how to make learning stick. A number of the findings are counter-intuitive, pointing to new approaches and tools for learning that can significantly increase engagement and retention of learning, using a wide range of training mediums.

Is there such a thing as "instant learning"?Experts in mobile and social learning say that there is increased prevalence that learners retain and learn by increments of knowledge and use them as frequently and quickly as they can. The method is "recursive learning" - small building blocks of learning with close proximity to work applications. In most situations however, the difficulty for trainers, eLearning and mLearning designers is that courses and lessons they develop are more driven towards the "completeness" of knowledge transfer rather than the "immediate application" of knowledge.

In a new Training Magazine webinar, Dale Carnegie Training reveals results of its cross industry, in-depth study of 1,500 employees to explore engagement in the workplace. The research reveals several surprises and five practical approaches managers can use to increase employee enthusiasm, empowerment, confidence and value to their organization.

Why can't your people negotiate? Probably because they don't follow a systematic approach that been proven to be effective. This session will provide a foundation and approach to training your staff in negotiation skills that is relied upon by top performers at all levels, from sales professionals all the way up to the C-Suite. The webinar is based on a real negotiation and requires participant interaction in a systematic approach to negotiations comprised of 3 Ps: Prepare, Probe, and Propose.

So you’ve been reading and hearing about flipped classrooms for quite some time, but not sure how to implement it in your organization. Worry no more!

Walt Disney once proclaimed that the gap between entertainment and education is an old and untenable viewpoint. The entertainments Disney created were both informative and enjoyable—unlike many learning programs. When engagement and learning are aligned, as Disney did, the result is magical; participants pay attention, they absorb information, and they change behavior.

There is lots of buzz about "gamification" and game-based learning over the last year. Why should your organization consider adding it to your talent development strategy? This webinar may provide the key to igniting the performance of your workforce in 2013!

A story-based lesson can employ the "SRIA Model - Setup, Relate, Interpret and Apply"- to improve learning. But what is the approach to create a full program where there are several lessons? How do we make the lessons work in rhythm and harmony so each lesson moves the learner from one type of emotional learning to another? How do we immerse the learner so that each lesson builds up to a final "learning realization" or "high"?

Is "doing more with less," resulting in burned out employees? Are you finding it difficult to keep employees engaged?

The question is not, "Should we be using social media in training?", but "How?" The consumerization of learning and technology has changed the way that SmartLearners learn. To be successful, blended learning programs must not only wrap the learning experience around the learner by integrating it into the workflow, but also provide ways that learners can quickly connect with a network of trusted experts.

Do you have the nimble mindset to keep pace with today’s rapidly evolving environment? Learn how to build your thinking agility to break through the noise, make sense of shifting requirements, quickly adjust your approaches, and put together the best solutions for your learning challenges.

In the past, online education and e-learning failed to live up to its potential. Fortunately, the future of virtual learning is here. It’s now possible to create rich, robust and collaborative learning environments that can be delivered anywhere and anytime. Join this Training Magazine webinar, presented by UNC Executive Development, to learn how you can realize the full potential of virtual learning in your organization. You will hear directly from one of the industry leaders based on years of experience delivering world-class online learning. 2U Inc. was recently recognized by Forbes magazine as one of the 10 start-ups changing the world. Attend this webinar to learn how the company is transforming online education and how you can do the same in your organization.

As organizations globalize and transform themselves for a connected, 24/7, just-in-time world, online learning has risen dramatically in importance. And over the last few years, no learning medium has grown faster than online video.

Get a sneak preview of a couple of the sessions Lou will be teaching during Training 2013. This free webinar is an hour-long overview on Strategies to Combat Scope Creep and some of the Fatal Mistakes All Learning Developers Make.