Free T&D Webinars for August 2014

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Lazy summer days? Not likely in today’s high-performing organizations! The great thing is that by tapping into the right mentorship, and by working smart, we can hit our performance targets—and enjoy a few beach days too. Why not get some new ideas from one of the free webinars being offered this August? We hope they will inspire and motivate you.

Wednesday, July 30, August 13, and August 27, 2014, 11AM – 12PM PST: Summer School for the Virtual Trainer

Register for this three-part webinar series with Jennifer Hofmann, president of InSync Training, to discover how to design and deliver an effective training program that will help you finish the year strong.

Join us for this series to learn:

  • A blend of delivery methods designed to maximize learning.

  • What training content is best delivered in a live, virtual format.

  • How to overcome common hurdles on the road to blended learning.

  • Key strategies for performing and facilitating online training.

Tuesday, August 5, 2014, 10AM – 11AM PST: e-Learning:  Are You Serious?

If implemented correctly, e-Learning can positively impact any organization. But so much of the e-Learning created and invested in today relies on technology, and focuses on content instead of the learner and improving performance. The result: boring e-Learning and wasted budgets! 

Join Dr. Michael Allen as he explains how the 22 principles of the Serious e-Learning Manifesto can help combat today’s e-Learning failures by creating learning solutions that generate business impact. In this webinar, attendees will:

  • Gain valuable knowledge of the e-Learning Manifesto Principles.

  • See examples of e-Learning created with the Principles of the Manifesto in mind.

  • Understand the ROI of using the Principles of the Manifesto to create your e-Learning.

  • Understand the performance impact of using e-Learning that takes into consideration the Principles of the Manifesto.

Tuesday, August 5, 2014, 10AM – 11AM PST: Thinking of Replacing Your LMS

This session will help you reduce your fear and create a strategy for success during the process! Your business needs are changing fast, and so are the demands placed on your current learning technology. Learning leaders must stay a step ahead of their business, but that can be difficult when dealing with antiquated technology and limited delivery options. Do you have that nagging awareness that it is time to switch your learning technology, but haven't wanted to face the reality of doing so? Over 30 percent of organizations in a recent Brandon Hall survey had plans to replace their existing LMS solution. Most of them look forward to the transition with dread and concern. Can they make a solid business case for the change? Will the transition impact business processes or mission-critical learning needs?

Wednesday, August 6, 2014, 10AM – 11AM PST: Death By Mismanagement: The Devastating Impact of Micromanagement (Free for ASTD/ATD members)

Employees today are often promoted through the ranks without always receiving the necessary training on how to be a rock-star manager. Through their ineffective behaviour, their teams’ production levels begin a steady downward cycle, ultimately ending in terminations, resignations, or demotions. Many productive employees leave an organization because of something their supervisor is doing—or not doing. Whether leaders find themselves too overwhelmed with responsibilities to take an active interest in employee development, or haven't received the proper leadership training to inspire creativity, take risks, and cultivate project ownership, the results are the same.

One of the biggest trouble spots arises in finding the balance between micromanaging and delegating. New, overzealous managers feel they need to know everything at all times. From their employees’ perspectives, this may be interpreted as a lack of trust and autonomy.

Help your supervisors learn how to walk the fine line between micromanaging and delegating, and enable them to motivate, lead, and inspire in even the most challenging times.

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Wednesday, August 6, 2014, 10AM – 11AM PST: HCM Technology Trends and Excellence Awards

Are you a solution provider that offers phenomenal, innovative technologies to Learning and Development, Talent Management, Human Resources, Talent Acquisition, and Sales Enablement functions?

Or are you an organization that has created or implemented technologies to help streamline, save costs, and improve productivity within your organization?

Then we want to hear from you and invite you to apply for Excellence in Technology Awards Program.  The program offers you an opportunity to showcase your products, which will be reviewed by Brandon Hall Group’s elite analyst team and industry experts.

Now entering its 20th year, the Brandon Hall Group Excellence Awards Program is the most prestigious awards program in the industry. Often times called the “Academy Awards” by Learning, Talent and Business Executives, the program was one of the first of its kind in the learning industry, which was pioneered in 1994.

Thursday, August 7, 2014, 10AM – 11AM PST: Breaking Training Development Project Rules

In 1969, the Project Management Institute (PMI) was founded. Project Management specialists were  building roads, buildings, the new “computers,” and lunar modules. The AT&T telephone operators still plugged wires into boards to transfer calls! Paper memos slowly communicated work to be done. Multi-tasking was unheard of. The PMBOK (Project Management Body of Knowledge) established a standardized and control-focused approach to doing projects, much like ADDIE brought to the new field of training.  

Now, 45 years later, our work looks more like a flashmob: interruptions, unending work, dysfunctional multi-tasking, and highly matrixed organizations. Everyone needs everyone to do their pile of projects. We have to embrace the structure of the PMBOK while looking at our project artifacts and tools in a new way. Join Lou Russell to learn about shortcuts that help “accidental” project managers organize and adapt to chaos.

Thursday, August 7, 2014, 11AM – 12PM PST: Moving from the Classroom to VILT with No Drama (ASTD/ATD subscriber content)

Virtual Instructor Led Training (VILT) is now a fact of life for most organizations. Yet a lot of training professionals still struggle to make the move from the classroom to the virtual environment.

This webinar is hosted by Wayne Turmel, writer, speaker, and president of GreatWebMeetings.com, which teaches companies and their people to sell, present, train and lead people using online and virtual presentation and meeting tools.

Thursday, August 7, 2014, 9AM – 10AM PST: Thursday, August 7, 2014, 10AM – 11AM PST: Best Practices to Ensure Maximum ROI on Learning and Development

Employee development these days is a big deal and it is at the top of CEO priority lists. Billions of dollars are being spent on development, and this number is ever increasing. Research studies show that companies that develop their employees - and do it well - reap big rewards in terms of product innovation, market share, and greater efficiency.

This webinar will be an informative and engaging one hour session that will conclude with five best practices that need to be considered to ensure maximum ROI investment for all L&D activities. This webcast will be of particular interest to: Instructional Designers, Trainers, ELearning Trainers, LMS administrators, Employee and Management Development, and Organizational Development – and has been pre-approved for one hour of continuing education (HRCI) credits!

You will learn:

  • The difference between training and development and how the difference effects your development communication plan

  • The definition of “scrap learning”

  • How people best develop new skills or capabilities

  • What learners are expecting in their development programs

  • How to ensure that development will lead to organization success

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Monday, August 11, 2014, 11AM – 12PM PST: Global Best Practices in Building Service Cultures (Free for ASTD/ATD members)

Organizations with a powerful service reputation and a superior service culture attract and retain the best talent, achieve market leadership, and enjoy sustainable success. Ron Kaufman will show you why some organizations succeed beautifully, while others fail miserably. Find out what works, what doesn’t, what your organization should do, and what you must avoid.

Tuesday, August 12, 2014, 10AM – 11AM PST: Mixing It Up and Flipping the Classroom

Organizations have adopted the virtual classroom as a way to maximize training opportunities while minimizing costs. After a decade of ineffective sessions, training organizations are looking for instructional design techniques that will create virtual programs that will meet, or even exceed, the results achieved in more traditional settings.

Trending in the virtual classroom design space are two concepts: how to “flip the classroom” to maximize valuable collaboration time, and how to apply the latest thinking with regards to Bloom's Taxonomy to determine how best to deliver content in this new environment. Another key consideration concerns how blended learning fits into the equation. Do we need to both FLIP and BLEND?

In this session, techniques will be shared that will help you to:

  • Determine what content is best delivered in a live, virtual format.

  • Map learning objectives to the appropriate virtual classroom tools using a modern application of Bloom'sTaxonomy of Learning.

  • "Flip the classroom" to maximize the collaborative impact of "together time."

Tuesday, August 12, 2014, 11AM – 12PM PST: Maximizing the Effectiveness of of Sales Training (Free for ASTD/ATD members)

Companies spend about $20 billion a year on various forms of sales training. Still, many sales leaders report low ROIs from their sales training initiatives. Join ATD for this webcast and learn how to maximize the effectiveness of your sales training initiative. Norman Behar and David Jacoby discuss five essential factors that can help you achieve sustainable success from your investment in sales training programs. Learning takeaways for attendees:

  • Motivate your team for training success.

  • Leverage the benefits of virtual sales training.

  • Reinforce training to make new skills lasting habits.

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Wednesday, August 13, 2014, 11AM – 12PM PST: Building Trust and Transparency in Your Organization (Free for ASTD/ATD members)

We have a faltering economy and most organizations need top performance from their workforce to survive. Yet some of the actions needed for a company to remain viable come at the cost of losing the hard-earned trust of their employees, which greatly reduces productivity. If this is a familiar scenario for you and your organization, you will profoundly benefit from this webinar.

Join Bob Whipple for an enlightening program that shows a clear pathway for enhancing trust and transparency in organizations. This session is interactive and will reveal some wonderful opportunities for turning a corner on the malaise of the economy and the resulting disconnect in communication between companies and their employees.

Wednesday, August 13, 2014, 10 AM – 11AM PST: Big Data: What It is and What It Means for You (Free for CSTD members)

The era of Big Data - the creation of massive amounts of data often too large to handle - is here and you are one of the sources. You shop, text, Like, tweet, check-in, watch movies on Netflix and Google everything. And just maybe, your smartphone or tablet has become an extension of your body that you can't sleep without. Big Data is the present and future, and it is affecting you whether you like it or not, and whether you are aware of it or not. But what does that mean? How do we bring this new reality down to our day-to-day lives and careers?

Join Jamie Good, Social Media Specialist at Global Knowledge Canada, as he explores with you the implications and effects of Big Data on your present and future. Learn how being a part of our data-driven society impacts so many facets of your daily life and how Big Data will change the face of Learning and Development forever.

Thursday, August 14, 2014, 10AM – 11AM PST: Next-Generation Learning Strategies for a Next-Generation World

What are your employees learning today? Or maybe a better question might be: are your employees learning today? If you aren't certain of the answer to either question, or the answer to either question is negative, you might have a problem. And the problem might not be your employees, either.

In March, we talked about a next generation of learning content strategies. Now we'll go deeper into that concept of a next generation of learning by exploring a new look at the very foundation of learning strategies more broadly. In this webinar, we'll explore what a next generation of learning strategies might include, how to develop such a strategy for your organization, and how you can begin taking action right away to build an effective employee learning program that will prepare employees to acquire the learning skills needed to learn how to perform effectively in jobs that might not exist today.

Thursday, August 14, 2014, 11AM – 12PM PST: On the Right Track: Designing Programs That Last (Free for ASTD/ATD members)

Using a one-size-fits-all approach when training can frustrate advanced learners and leave others behind. Training tracks address the spectrum of competency levels possessed by employees, and are more successful when teaching complex skill sets. In this 60-minute webinar, OpenSesame's Marketing Manager Katie Hurst will show you how to use backwards planning to build a series of lessons, ensuring your employees retain knowledge and more effectively apply skills in the workplace. You will learn to:

  • Differentiate between the levels of Bloom's Taxonomy.

  • Learn the value of varied practice and lesson spacing.

  • Practice the Backwards Design process.

Participants will also receive a free copy of the accompanying e-book, which includes worksheets for use in designing your own training tracks.

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Tuesday, August 19, 2014, 10AM – 11AM PST: How Change Gets Stuck (Free for ASTD/ATD members)

The path to implementing change in an organization isn’t always smooth. On the way, you run into frequent speed bumps, wrong-way signs, and even concrete barriers. These road hazards on the way to change are obstacles that prevent you from moving forward. Despite your best intentions, you and your change initiative can get stuck.

In this webcast, you will learn the warning signs that your change initiative is stalled, and identify some of the root causes that may be preventing the organization from making progress. We will also discuss what you can do to get unstuck, and how to avoid getting stuck in the first place. Bring your challenges and your experience to this interactive session where we’ll uncover the common obstacles to organizational change.

Tuesday, August 19, 2014, 10AM – 11AM PST: How the Digital Skills Gap Is Killing Your Team’s Productivity—and What You Can Do About It

A recent study by Deloitte found that the rapid pace of technological change in the workplace is leading to a skills half-life of just 2.5 years. Even the most adept employee can quickly fall behind—and workers, businesses, and the entire economy are paying the price. Every year, the digital skills gap drives a loss of nearly $1 trillion for the US economy. For a firm with 1,000 employees, this translates to a $10 million loss each year on a compensation basis alone.

But we need not stand idly by as our organizations bleed productivity. By laying out the eight core competencies of digital skills, this webinar provides an action plan for addressing the digital skills gap in your team.

Wednesday, August 20, 2014, 10AM – 11AM PST: Best of DevLearn: Design Models and Patterns for Creating Better e-Learning

More people within organizations find themselves in the role of e-Learning designer without having the experience needed to solve particular design problems. Participants will learn a core set of learning-design models or patterns that even inexperienced practitioners can quickly understand. These models combine some of the best principles and leading practices gained from years of research and experience, and are easily applicable to the vast majority of learning requirements that come your way.

Wednesday, August 20, 2014, 10AM – 11AM PST: The Business Side of a Successful Performance Consulting Practice

This session is about the folklore and implications of different legal structures, including partnerships, sub S corporations, sole proprietorships, and non-profits as they apply to operating a successful consulting practice. You will understand the importance of asking the right questions when working with your lawyer, banker, and accountant. 

This series is for you if you are new to consulting or are thinking about starting your own consulting practice in the areas of training, e-Learning, process improvement, or performance improvement.

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Wednesday, August 20, 2014, 10AM – 11AM PST: The Four Roles and Secret Skills of Followership

According to research in The Harvard Business Review and from Lloyd’s of London, the ability to grow effective leaders is an international crisis for organizations: poor leaders are hurting the results of most companies around the globe.

Twenty years of leading in the military, academia, business, and politics has taught Cory Bouck that the best leaders act, paradoxically, as both a leader and a follower at the same time throughout their career. Everybody has a boss, and both of you can enhance your reputation for strong leadership through your "followership.”

During this interactive webinar, you will be introduced to four key roles and learn how to demonstrate the secret skills of followership. Followership is the first—and most career-enhancing—form of leadership.

Wednesday, August 20, 2014, 11AM – 12PM PST: Four Leadership Behaviours That Build or Destroy Trust (Free for ASTD/ATD members)

Trust continues to be identified as a missing ingredient in today's workplace. As surveys show, only a small percentage of today's workers strongly agree that they trust their leaders. To ensure high levels of organizational performance, leaders need to tackle trust head-on. The key is to demonstrate the behaviours people most associate with trust.

In this webinar, participants will learn how to:

  • Recognize the warning signs that people lack trust in you and your leadership.

  • Purposefully engage in the four trust-building behaviours.

  • Create strong, long-lasting, trust-based relationships.

Don't miss this opportunity to learn how to raise the level of trust in your organization by increasing the “trust-ability” of your leaders.

Monday, August 25, 2014, 11AM – 12PM PST: Aha Moments in Talent Management (Free for ASTD/ATD members)

This webcast addresses the biggest issues in talent management. We will discuss some best practices to emulate and some worst practices to avoid. Anyone who manages people is a talent manager, so what are the essentials that everyone should know? By attending this presentation, you will learn answers to the following:

  • What is talent management?

  • What are the functions of talent management?

  • What do we mean by the word “talent?" (Spoiler alert: The word is not synonymous with “people.”)

  • What is the true nature of the job of anyone who manages people?

  • How do you create accountabilities for talent management?

  • How can you avoid the single biggest mistake in talent management—one that most organizations are guilty of committing regularly?

Tuesday, August 26, 2014, 10AM – 11AM PST: Variables: 10 Things Every Storyline Developer Wants to Know

As e-Learning developers we often get caught up in designing only what we know from experience. The same holds true with e-Learning developers using Articulate Storyline. The more you know, the more options and ideas become evident to solving instructional design challenges. The more you know about variable programming in Storyline, the more the world opens up to unlimited design possibilities.  

Those who attend will learn... 

  • Variable types and their differences.

  • The various uses of variable types.

  • The best time to use a variable.

  • Tips for how to best manage multiple variables.

Wednesday, August 27, 2014, 11AM – 12PM PST: Thinking Beyond ROI: A New Way of Looking at Learning Metrics (Free for ASTD/ATD members)

Learning professionals often mistake learning metrics for business metrics. Attendance rates and ROI are great indicators of a training program’s internal impacts, but often are irrelevant to an organization’s competitive goals. Koreen Pagano, director of enterprise product management at lynda.com, explains how to compile and share metrics that expose greater value. After this session, you will be able to:

  • Think beyond ROI.

  • Translate training benefits into the language of business.

  • Frame learning as a competitive advantage.

Thursday, August 28, 2014, 10AM – 11AM PST: Closing Skill Gaps at Caterpillar Starts with Content Strategy

High Impact Learning Organizations (HILO) facilitate continuous learning. One where the development of new and increased skills ensure their employees can adapt quickly to a changing environment and help the business compete effectively. HILOs like Caterpillar strive to build long-term organizational capability through personalized learning paths and development plans. 

According to Bersin by Deloitte, one of the top three factors separating HILOs from the others is Content Capability. Join David Mallon, Head of Research at Bersin by Deloitte, as he interviews Michael Miller, Process and Standards Supervisor at Caterpillar, Inc.  to learn how Content Strategy is driving Caterpillar’s drive to personalized learning and transforming how their dealer technicians will learn and demonstrate competency and skills in the future.

In this session you will learn:

  • Caterpiller's approach to creating bite-sized learning that can be tailored to individua learning needs.

  • Unique methods for delivering learning content at the right time in the right place.

  • Measuring results at the content, personal and organizational level.

  • Personalized learning as the most effective approach to closing organizational skill gaps.

Free Summertime Webinars

Although the calendar proclaimed it officially summer last month, sunny summer days have been very slow to arrive in Vancouver. But with summer vacations just around the corner for clients, project work can slow down a bit so it’s a great opportunity to catch up on new industry trends, research and ideas. Check out the free webinars being offered this summer. We hope they will inspire and motivate you.

Tuesday, July 10, 2012, 10AM – 11AM PST: ROI Basics: Calculating the ROI

Join Patti Phillips, President & CEO, ROI Institute for her fourth and final webinar in the ROI series. To calculate the ROI you must convert impact measures to money, compare it to the program costs, and identify intangible benefits. During this webcast, you will learn a variety of methods to convert measures to money, five steps to convert a measure to money and cost categories that make up the fully-loaded program costs.  Click on the link to also access the recordings of her three previous ROI webinars if you happened to miss them.

Tuesday, July 10, 2012, 11AM – 12PM PST: Mobile Learning: Delivering Learning in a Connected World

This webinar is based on ASTD and i4cp's recently published report, Mobile Learning: Delivering Learning in a Connected World. This report looks at the current landscape of mobile learning in a world in which the ubiquity of mobile devices seems to have created a perfect environment for delivering learning solutions to our workforce, where or when they need it. Upside Learning’s Kevin Oakes, i4cp's CEO, will discuss how mobile technology is changing the world and our experience of it. From an organizational perspective, mobile learning allows for a spectrum of possibilities that were not present before, and they continue to evolve before us. The findings of this Study indicate that companies with learning functions that help meet both learning and business goals tend to be higher market performers.

Wednesday, July 11, 2012, 10AM – 11AM PST: How to Create Interactive Scenarios in Articulate Storyline

Join Tom Kuhlmann, VP of Community at Articulate and author of the widely popular “Rapid e-Learning Blog” as he shares his simple 3C model where you challenge the learner to make a decision, offer some choices, and produce consequences that provides relevant feedback or additional challenges. Then he’ll show you how to quickly create them using Articulate Storyline. You’ll learn to:

  • Use the 3C model to build decision-making scenarios
  • Build interactive models using states, layers, and triggers in Storyline
  • Craft interactive branched scenarios, and
  • Discover how to create, share, and re-use what you build.  

Wednesday, July 11, 2012, 11AM – 12PM PST: Design is Everything: 5 Techniques for Designing an Interactive Virtual Class (ASTD members only)

If you want to create a powerful learning experience for your online learners, your virtual training must be engaging – which means your virtual classroom design must be exceptional. In this first webinar in the 2-part Virtual Classroom Design series, learn 5 techniques you can apply immediately to take your interactive virtual training to the next level. 

Thursday, July 12, 2012, 10AM – 11AM PST: “What if I die today?” – Story Impacts eLearning Exercise: Building Stories using StoryLine

Using the book, “Story Impacts Learning and Performance” as a point of reference, Ray Jimenez will share how he uses engaging stories and Articulate StoryLine to author “What if I die today?” – Story Impacts eLearning Exercise. Ray will provide in advance, the source code to the self-reflection exercise, authored in StoryLine. You can investigate the authoring design prior to learning more about the approach during the actual webinar. You will learn how to:

  • Build basic game-like story elements using animation, objects, scenes and slides, timelines, layers and triggers
  • Use variables for multiple decision points
  • Provide game-like feedback for progress tracking

Thursday, July 12, 2012, 11AM – 12PM PST: Taking Learning Mobile: The Power of Learning Everywhere (ASTD members only)

Once a learning organization has committed to “go mobile,” it may seem as though the hardest decision has been made. Soon after this path is chosen, though, reality sets in. There are many things to consider as you work to build your initial efforts for the varieties of mobile devices. This webinar will focus on how to get started with mobile learning, including deciding on an initial project and changing your design approach. Join Chad Udell, a seasoned expert on mobile learning and author of the new ASTD book, Learning Everywhere, as he demystifies the choices involved in developing mobile learning content, and provides real-world experience on how to get down to business creating mobile learning.

Thursday, July 12, 2012, 10AM – 11AM PST: Empowering Employees: Sustainable Career Management Models

In the next five years, businesses will experience major demographic changes as far as their workforces are concerned. Just to name a few: Workforces will continue to become more diverse; millennials are projected to represent more than 50 percent of the overall labor force; and the capabilities required to lead in tomorrow’s economy will be different than the capabilities required today. Join Stacey Harris, VP of Research, David Wentworth, Sr. Learning Analyst for Brandon Hall Group, Jeff Gill, Director, Talent Management and Acquisition and Amy Jo Womack, HR Systems Manager for Valerus as they share the latest research in creating Career Enhancing programs that work for mid-market organizations.

Thursday, July 12, 2012, 8AM – 9PM PST: Building the Business Case for Learning Measurement

Often the only barrier that separates an organization from getting the software it needs is a compelling argument. During this webinar, KnowledgeAdvisors will help you structure your information so you can make the following compelling argument to your leaders, “We need an evaluation measurement system. Here’s why, and here are the benefits.” While this argument will use MTM as an example, you can use the fundamental structure to argue for any software.

Tuesday, July 17, 2012, 11AM – 12PM PST: Informal Learning Basics: What ARE the Basics?

Informal learning might represent as much as 70 percent of workplace learning and be one of the most talked-about topics in training today. But what is it really? What forms can it take? When can it make a difference in workplace performance and when might it actually detract from it? What role, if any, do Training and Development professionals play in informal learning? Join Saul Carliner, author of the new ASTD best-seller, Informal Learning Basics, as he introduces the basics of informal learning.

Tuesday, July 17, 2012, 10AM – 11AM PST: A Unified Approach to Learning Management

As always, the way your learner’s access information (technology – web/mobile) and the number of channels available and utilized to learn (classroom/self-paced/social/informal) continue to increase, these pose challenges regarding how to effectively and efficiently manage learning for your organization. The need of the hour is a unified approach to this problem. Current organizational challenges in managing learning demand a system that understands that different technology options) and different channels of learning are a part of the whole learning experience. Join David Wentworth, Senior Analyst at Brandon Hall Group, and Jason Clymer, VP - Client Acquisition and Partner Development at Upside Learning as they shed more light on the idea of unified solution approaches as they discuss the need and advantages of an untied learning ecosystem.

Wednesday, July 18, 2012, 11AM – 12PM PST: Facilitating in the Live Online Classroom: 5 Techniques to Master Delivery (ASTD members only)

What do the best virtual trainers do? They engage learners by presenting, facilitating and teaching in ways that bring the online classroom together. Join this final session in the Virtual Classroom Design series, to discover the 5 techniques master trainers and presenters use to deliver their virtual lessons with real energy. Learn how to:

  • Effectively engage out-of-sight participants
  • Maintain high enthusiasm during delivery
  • Harness your voice for the microphone
  • Prepare for unforeseen technical issues

Thursday, July 19, 2012, 11AM – 12PM PST: Developing a Client Centric Culture – A SunTrust Case Study

Differentiating your organization in today’s market can help increase revenue and develop stronger client relationships. SunTrust was able to evolve and deploy a client centric culture that enabled their organization to display growth, improve client relationships, and enhance the talent and development of their sales managers and leaders. SunTrust’s strategic approach to a sales talent and training development program allowed their sales managers to link sales, service and client loyalty while remaining committed to putting clients first. As part of Brandon Hall Group’s Excellence Award Winners Webinar Series, join Mary Slaughter, SVP, Talent Management & Development from SunTrust Banks, Inc.; David DiStefano, Chief Executive Officer, Richardson; and Rachel Ashkin, Chief Operating Officer, Brandon Hall Group, as they share how SunTrust effectively developed and implemented a new sales and sales management curriculum designed to address the current business climate and desired sales leadership competencies.

Tuesday, July 24, 2012, 10AM – 11AM PST: I Want to Work THERE! 3 Keys to Creating an Engagement Culture

An organization’s culture has a tremendous influence on employee engagement. A culture that features opportunity, personal accountability, inclusion, community, and validation will lead to engaged employees. But how do you create that culture and how do you maintain engagement throughout an employee’s time at your company? Join Cornerstone OnDemand’s, Bob Kelleher, CEO of The Employee Engagement Group and Kevin Sensenig, Global Vice President, Learning and Organizational Development, Dale Carnegie & Associates, Inc. and discover best practices from two employee engagement experts. Explore how to create an employee engagement culture through three steps:
1. Hire the right people
2. Foster engagement through onboarding
3. Maintain engagement for the long term 

Tuesday, July 24, 2012, 11AM – 12PM PST: What Research Tells Us about Games, Gamification and Learning (ASTD members only)

This decidedly unacademic presentation provides a broad scientific overview of what research has taught us about the effectiveness of games and game-elements in changing learner behaviors. We will consider how playing a video game changes a person’s behavior, how avatars can shape in-game and out-of-game behavior, and how storytelling helps learners memorize facts. We’ll answer questions like: What makes a game…a game? How do points and rewards fit into games? Why are challenges, feedback, and interactivity the keys to successful games? Do serious games have to be entertaining to be educational?

Learn how to use the existing research literature in your own design and delivery of learning. This webinar also includes several practical case studies outlining how the research tips, techniques, and practices can be applied in a real-life online learning situation.

Tuesday, July 24, 2012, 10AM – 11AM PST: Moving Knowledge for Rapid Business Impact

Learning at work is changing – and not just in how it is delivered. The drivers behind “why” learning is even relevant are shifting as well. Executives and managers recognise the value and power of distributing information quickly, to support anything from security compliance to product launches to corporate values. This top-level recognition marks a move from ‘HR-driven’ to ‘business-led’ learning, something with profound implications for learning and development professionals. What systems do we need to meet these new business needs? What influence do millennials and other learners have? And what impact will this have on the L&D function as a whole?  Join Stacey Harris, VP, Research & Advisory Services, Brandon Hall Group and Donald Taylor, Chairman, Learning and Performance Institute as they draw on a range of practical examples to explore the trends changing the face of workplace learning today.

Wednesday, July 25, 2012, 10AM – 11AM PST: Critical Competencies for 21st Century Leaders

Successful leadership involves managing one’s self and relationships with others to move toward a specific business goal. The role of a leader is to grow others - helping people grow their skills, knowledge, and confidence to develop leadership themselves in a real, practical context. The real world has other plans, however. Business goals are fluid, people are stressed, and one-way technological messages continue to invade every moment of our lives. One thing remains the same – leadership is all about people. In this session, learn how you can clear a little chaos and build a high performing team and how to take the time to consider a new approach to leadership while faced with predictable, constant chaos.

Wednesday, July 25, 2012, 9AM – 10AM PST: Hit the Ground Running: Establishing a Model Executive Onboarding Program

This webinar paints a compelling picture of the importance of executive onboarding in an organization. You will be introduced to OPM's government wide executive onboarding framework and the steps that are critical to developing and implementing a successful formal executive onboarding program from pre-boarding through the first year. OPM will also present a unique product to the Federal sector, the New Leaders Onboarding Assessment --- an assessment designed help government manager and executives more quickly assimilate into new organizations. The New Leaders Onboarding Assessment was developed and offered to agencies through OPM's Human Resources Solutions division.

Thursday, July 26, 2012, 11AM – 12PM PST: Real World Training Design

Despite the assumptions of most instructional design methodologies, your training events don’t happen in a neat little "bubble." And neither does your design process. What are some of the most common pitfalls and contraints? How do you navigate them for the results your organization replies on? In this webcast, author, speaker, and real-world designer Jenn Labin presents some of the most common challenges training designers face, plus solutions to keep your project moving forward.

Tuesday, July 31, 2012, 10AM – 11AM PST: Effective Manager Training and Education – Building a Foundation for Organizational Success

Over half of all newly promoted managers fail in their roles within two years. We often assume our top performers are instantly ready for the more complex demands of management and supervision. Success for both new managers and their teams depends on support, development, and a solid approach to setting clear management expectations. Join Stacey Harris VP of Research and Advisory Services at Brandon Hall Group, and Chris Osborn of BizLibrary as they talk about the evolving set of demands and competencies all of our managers need, and they will share research and key practices for preparing both current and future managers for success.  

Wednesday, August 1, 2012, 10AM – 11AM PST: Story-Based eLearning: Antidote to Boring Programs

According to Mark Zuckerburg (Facebook CEO), “Our lives are made up of stories – that is why we provide ‘TIMELINE’ in Facebook because we help you tell your life-stories”. From Confucius to Zuckerburg, people learn from each other by sharing experiences and stories. Nowadays, this fact becomes increasingly significant with the advent and continuous development of mobile learning, on-the-job learning support and communities of learners. The challenge has been how to design learning points that are story-driven to help learners learn instantly. In this session, learn how to use the power of story dynamics, both telling and listening, as antidotes to boring eLearning programs. A free pre-webinar study kit that includes white papers, demos and examples is available for this session.

Thursday, August 2, 2012, 10AM – 11AM PST: Gamify Your Training: Use Gamification to Increase Employee Engagement and Improve Feedback

Half of all office workers use Facebook at work. Why? Because it's far more satisfying and rewarding than the vast majority of the tasks we're given during the workday. Facebook has a highly engaged audience for the same reasons we enjoy watching football, playing video games or gambling at a casino. The process is called Gamification and you may already be using several game mechanics now. Gamification is the application of game mechanics and game-thinking in non-game environments to increase fun and engagement. This webinar will explore how specific mechanics influence behavior and how you can add them to your own training programs.

Tuesday, August 7, 2012, 12:30PM – 1:30PM PST: Interactivity, Games and Gamification: Creating Engaged Learners

Based on the bestselling learning book, “The Gamification of Learning and Instruction” this session introduces, defines, and describes the concepts of gamification, games for learning and interactivity. It then dissects the elements of games and describes how they can be applied to the design and development of interactive learning.  The presentation is based on solid research including peer-reviewed results from dozens of studies that offer insights into why game-based thinking and mechanics makes for vigorous learning tools. Moving beyond the theoretical considerations, the presentation explores three methods for designing interactive learning based on concepts from games.

Tuesday, August 14, 2012, 10AM – 11AM PST: Informal Learning and Social Media: Upskilling for 21st Century Training

New tools for and ideas about learning are bringing in a new age for training and development practitioners. We now have real means of extending our reach, learners who can identify and satisfy their own learning needs, and opportunities to support workplace learning and performance like we’ve never had before. This session provides an overview of some 21st century skills we’ll need to develop to stay current and viable in a rapidly changing, but more learning-focused, time. 

Wednesday, August 29, 2012, 9AM – 10AM PST: Demonstrating Executive Reporting Solutions for L&D

This webinar will provide both strategic and tactical information about reporting L&D results to business executives. Examples of reports, scorecards and dashboards will be demonstrated. As well, you will review three classifications of expertise that exists to support an organizations’ desire to advance its own executive reporting. A review of these consultative solutions will provide insight into the depth and breadth of resources that exist to fully support a practitioners desire to improve upon the metrics provided to the business.

First Steps in Creating an e-Learning Strategy

Many organizations that have traditionally offered ILT (instructor-led training) are venturing into the e-learning realm to improve the quality of their learning programs and get the best ROI from their training budget. The tricky part when you’re unfamiliar with developing and managing e-learning is where to start when you don’t know what you need to know to get started. Change is good and necessary but can also be daunting. Creating an e-learning strategy - a document that shows the value of implementing e-learning, answers the important questions and lays out a path for success - will ensure you consider all the potential issues and possible solutions in order to make informed decisions. Having a clear, concise and well thought out strategy will also win you support from senior management and key stakeholders. Implementing e-Learning in an organization requires people, infrastructure and budget resources. Senior management support will pave the way to successful implementation.

Here's a snapshot of some of the key factors you need to consider for your strategy:

Educate your audience

Don't assume that those reviewing your strategy will know as much about e-learning as you - it's worthwhile to give a brief outline and state the benefits.

Link to business goals and demonstrate ROI

Your senior management stakeholders will be asking themselves "Will e-Learning add sufficient value to the organization?" and What are the cost savings and expected improvements to business and employee performance?" Satisfy them by identifying how e-learning implementation will support business goals, and showing the estimated return on investment that can be expected (free tools are available online to help you do this). 

Think about communication

Many a great endeavor has failed due to poor communication. As part of your strategy, be prepared to create a detailed and focused communication plan. Use champions and mentors, communicate roll-out plans using e-mail, newsletters, publicity, focus groups, intranet, etc. and provide mechanisms for employee input.

Consider necessary IT support

Buy-in and support from IT is important to the success of any e-Learning implementation - you need IT on your side. IT groups are usually busy, and will want to know if the infrastructure is in place or available to support e-learning and  just what technical support is required. Be prepared to determine what IT implementation, upgrade and escalation plans are required. 

Address cultural change

This can be a HUGE challenge for some organizations so it’s important to identify in your e-learning strategy how change will be managed. Learners new to e-learning may be resistant to the change (i.e., “it works just fine the way it is.”). Create awareness, dispel myths, emphasize the “WIIFM” (what’s in it for me), provide training, communicate and encourage learner discussion and input.

Identify resources

The people, equipment and materials required to implement e-learning are both necessary for success and a cost and time consideration. Be sure to identify who will be involved and estimate their time commitment in your strategy; consider everyone from project sponsor to the target audience. 

Ensure accessibility for all learners

Your strategy must address how learners will gain access to your e-learning courses. Consider not only access to computers, network(s) and required software programs but also accessibility for learners with physical challenges (i.e., the visually impaired).

Draft a project plan

When you have gathered all the other data, you will need to create a project plan that estimates the time, resources and budget that will be required to plan, schedule, communicate, implement and evaluate the e-Learning program. This will form your blueprint for implementation of your strategy. 

Of course this could be considered the tip of the iceberg when it comes to crafting a complete strategy. If you're interested in finding out more, please contact us.

For further reading, check out this interesting article I found the other day on creating an e-Learning strategy.  The information provides more food for thought.