by Ashley Andrus

With the “Where the Wild Things Are” movie taking the box office by storm it’s a good time to think about feral learning and the ways in which Training & Development are taking a walk on “the wild side.”

In today’s “Google World” it’s possible to find instructions and information on almost anything you might need.

• Looking for that new BBQ restaurant? Google it.
• Wondering how many Rocky movies are in the series? A few keystrokes, a click, and voila.
• Need to know how to change out the filter in your furnace? You know what to do.

Most of us search online every single day. For 2009, Google reports a little under 300 million searches per day on average—almost 9 billion searches in the month of September alone. Technology has changed—forever—the way we gather information. The question is whether your organization’s training & development model has effectively adapted to that reality. Read the rest of this article »

by Anna Conrad

“Making change part of the organization’s internal dialogue is critical to successful firm management.”

Fear, anxiety, and resistance can quickly take over an organization during tough times, causing employee productivity, morale, and engagement to plummet. When change occurs — or is simply rumored to occur — stress can take over and cause serious disruption to firm operations.

A recent study by the Society for Human Resource Management showed that gossip and rumor-spreading among employees has increased 54 percent since the recession began. Such practices may seem harmless, but they can quickly hijack emotions and productivity among your firm’s attorneys and staff alike. If talk around the water cooler goes unchecked, an innocent closed-door meeting to discuss travel limitations could turn into (in the minds of the uniformed) a massive layoff plan. Consider the following strategies to keep this from happening at your firm. Read the rest of this article »

by Ashley Andrus

“Tell me and I may forget. Show me and I’ll remember. Involve me and I’ll understand.”—Confucius

You can learn sitting in a classroom. You can learn listening to somebody talk to you. You can learn watching a webinar or listening to a teleconference or sitting around a conference room table or reading a manual. But it’s not the only way you can learn.

Why not invite some “fun and games” into your meetings and workshops and daily office routine? Incorporating some get-up-and-walk activities with your sit-and-talk sessions can be an effective catalyst in taking the team and the discussion to the next level.

You don’t have to take your team to a ropes course, white-water rafting, skydiving, or high-speed driving to benefit from experiential activities. Those experiences are exciting and can be very effective, but if your budget or timeframe doesn’t allow for that possibility, consider some alternatives that can be done closer to home.

INSTRUCTOR-LED OPTIONS include program like: Read the rest of this article »

by Ashley Andrus and Linda Anderson

Think again…you can’t afford NOT to invest in your leaders during this turbulent time.

The very real pressures of an economic downturn and the tightening of learning budgets doesn’t mean professional development needs to go away. Not surprisingly, there is an increased need for leadership development as organizations face uncertain conditions and find they need the essential skills that are vital during reorganization and periods of adjustment.

Because many organizations are facing unavoidable restructuring due to reduced resources, according to a survey recently completed by the American Society for Training & Development (ASTD) and the Institute for Corporate Productivity (results overview here), 54% of organizational leaders expect a greater emphasis on leadership development and 37% anticipate an increase in soft skills development. The survey also noted that during prior slow economic periods, over a quarter of organizations—the forward-thinking ones—resisted the urge to reduce their training budgets. Read the rest of this article »