T + D

There is a major transformation taking place at Girl Scouts of the USA and it has nothing to do with cookies. This 95-year-old not-for-profit organization's sweeping efforts to increase its appeal and relevance to 21st-century girls focus on leadership development and provable outcomes that benefit girls, families, and communities. Historically known as a premier leadership development organization, Girl Scouts is remaking itself with a revamped business developmental strategy. The strategic ...

Dna of a Global Leader

With increased access to global sales, capital, goods, and services comes a slew of strategic and operational challenges, such as new competitors, exposure to risk, and unfamiliar regulations. The only hope an organization has to tackle these challenges and capitalize on the immense opportunities is its talent's ability to lead on a global scale. Outsmarting competition, protecting assets, and contending with regulations is far less of a challenge when you have the right people in place. Seni...

Recipe for Change

Fostering an employee culture that is flexible and adaptable, alert to new circumstances, able to shift gears, skilled in team building, and capable of cross-disciplinary communication is challenging for any organization. Federal agencies, in particular, face the prospect of broadening missions and added duties with fewer staff and tighter budgets. The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) established a national leadership program as a critical feature of its strategic planning process. Walden Consul...

Talent Management Up for Grabs?

Four learning executives from Verint, Allstate, Krempl International, and Orkin discussed myriad topics at the SharingO LearnShare conference in Atlanta, including who should own talent management, the hazards of using too much technology, and what to do about a CEO who doesn't want to teach. "Getting a seat at the table is a limited theme in my view. We've been working on what you do at the table once you're there," says Dave Groff, chief learning officer at Allstate. "We believe you have to...

Organizational Culture

Workplace learning and performance professionals understand that culture can easily limit much of what we need to do. But because culture is hard to pin down in practical terms, let alone to effectively change for the better, it remains a baffling issue. However, organizational culture is simpler than our personal cultures, and it is much easier to change than we imagine. Organizational cultures lack the broad links that help define how we understand ourselves among others. This weakness also...

Blueprint for Planning Learning

In a knowledge economy, an organization's ability to quickly adapt to changing realities is critical to its success. To facilitate the upkeep of knowledge and skills, workplace learning professionals seek innovative training design models and delivery methods so they can provide the right information at the right time to the right people. Of course every learning solution is initiated for a specific reason. The problem, however, arises because learning professionals typically rely on qualitat...

Rapid Talent Development

The need for rapid talent development has emerged as one of the major issues facing organizations in virtually all sectors of the economy. E-learning offers interesting opportunities for meeting this challenge. But before workplace learning and performance professionals adopt this widely used technology, there are some fundamental principles that need to be understood. There is a simple framework for strategically thinking about new ways to support your talent development initiatives, and thi...

Noel M. Tichy

In an interview, Global Business Partnership director Noel M. Tichy talked about his career. On his books on leadership, his ideas develop from going out in the world and spending time with real leaders as they struggle to transform their organizations. It is in trying to help leaders make change happen that he has learned the most. On what are the biggest changes he's seen throughout his career, he thinks there has always been good and bad leaders. When organizations fail, they fire their le...

Crucibles of Leadership: How to Learn From Experience to Become a Great Leader

Editor's Note

The Changing Face of Leadership

Editor

Intelligence

Right to Privacy Spurs Training

A spike in demand for training on privacy protection is appearing in organizations thanks to increased government mandates and liability concerns inside companies. Privacy-related regulations including data protection have already been adopted within the federal government and private industry but they're expected to assume even greater importance soon within the private sector. The initiatives are fueled by fears of identity theft and unauthorized or accidental release of personal records. M...

Re:Search

Retention Tension: Keeping High-Potential Employees

A recent study on popular retention methods from ClearRock, an outplacement and executive coaching firm in Boston, MA, reveals that employers are having a tough time keeping both their frontline and high-potential employees -- employees who are crucial to a company's success. High-potential operations and production workers are also the most difficult to retain, followed by workers in sales and marketing, information services, and accounting and finance. However, employers with new or revised...

Fundamentals

The Reluctant Trainer

Trainers frequently call on subject matter experts (SMEs) to tap into their experience and expertise, so that the trainers can design and facilitate workshops with rich content. When considering whether to ask an expert to design or facilitate a workshop, a trainer must first carefully assess the need for the SME to take on these roles. To convince an individual to take on the responsibility for a workshop, a trainer should honestly explain the specific reasons for the request. When experts l...

Books

Leaders at All Levels: Deepening Your Talent Pool to Solve the Succession Crisis

Leaders at All Levels: Deepening Your Talent Pool to Solve the Succession Crisis, by Ram Charan, is reviewed.

Deciding Who Leads: How Executive Recruiters Drive, Direct, and Disrupt the Global Search for Leadership Talent

The Powers to Lead

Development

Playing the 'Office Politics' Game

Janelle recently accepted a new position running the training and development division for a company specializing in artificial joints used by orthopedic surgeons. Janelle is worried about a potential threat to her effectiveness in her new role. Bob, one of three other candidates who applied for Janelle's new position, will be reporting to her. Bob has made it known to his colleagues, who also report to Janelle, that he thinks she's unfit for the job. Janelle is caught in a political quandary...

Trends

Educating the 'C' Class

The 2007 ASTD State of the Industry Report shows a four-year decline in executive development as a percentage of learning content. One could assume that expenditures have declined as well. Forbes lists succession planning and leadership training in emerging markets as two of the top five issues for C-level executives. As executives seek qualified replacements, skilled global leadership ability, and proven results, executive education is likely to enjoy new attention and investment. The Execut...

Intelligence: Trends

Employees Growing Restless

Surveys of employee attitudes by BlessingWhite, a New Jersey-based consulting agency, often paint a bleak picture, but as long as employers insist upon checking the pulse of their staff, they need to be prepared for good and bad news. A total of 58% of employees say they definitely plan to stay with their current employer this year, down from 65% two years ago when the survey was last conducted. The percentage of employees who said there is "no way" they will stay with their current employer ...

What Things Cost

What Does It Cost for Language Services?

Intelligence: Working Life

Balancing Act

Workplace professionals lament their inability to carve out personal time away from the office, according to a recent survey conducted by MRINetwork of Philadelphia, PA. Among respondents, 70% said their company does not allow for a proper balance between work and time spent away from the office. The survey also revealed that 65% of respondents reported working frequently after normal business hours. Organizations should take a two-pronged approach to helping employees achieve balance. Manage...

Intelligence: In The News

Companies Need to Manage Outsourcing Risks

The information technology and business process outsourcing market has become a $500 billion business, and it shows no signs of slowing down. But relying heavily on third parties or offshore entities carries many risks. A report published by Deloitte, "The Risk Intelligent Approach to Outsourcing and Offshoring," cites the key drivers behind outsourcing and offshoring, notably reducing costs in operations, development, and sales; tapping vendors' best practices and innovations; gaining access...

Career Path

Dear Coach

A letter from a reader on her career aspirations and how she's going to reach those goals is answered. There are some concrete steps you can take to launch your career in the training and development field just in case a serendipitous miracle fails to materialize. These are: 1. You need to network. 2. Develop your 30-second introduction. 3. Build on your experience. You are the only one who can decide if you are truly ready to make a move. Seventeen years as a certified pharmacy technician is...

On The Hill

Code of Ethics Required for Federal Contractors

Seeking to ensure more ethical behavior from federal contractors, the US government issued new rules that will require large contractors to offer format ethics and compliance training programs to their employees and to adopt written codes of ethics. The new guidelines establish a policy that all federal government contractors should have a written code of business ethics and conduct. In some cases compliance with the policy is voluntary, but for large contracts the requirements are mandatory....

Fast Fact

Older Workers, Newer Skills