Colin J. Hahn, Ph.D., CPTD

Colin J. Hahn, Ph.D., CPTD

Performance · Talent · Data

  • Improve ROI by Improving Flow

    There’s a simple way for talent development professionals to improve the ROI of their work: improve flow. The concept of flow comes from lean methodology. Lean originated in manufacturing with the realization that no individual step in the manufacturing process created value. The only way to deliver value to the customer was to ship the…

  • Performance Improvement is the Missing Skill in Needs Assessment

    To earn a seat at the business table, L&D leaders are asking their teams to drive business outcomes. This ask requires a new set of skills from instructional designers. Just being able to identify the knowledge and skills of expert performers is no longer enough. Now, instructional designers need to put those skill demands in…

  • What I Learned About Learning from Reading 2+ Books Per Week

    Over the last six years, I have read over 730 books. That works out to between two and three books per week! Through this journey, I have discovered several insights about the learning process itself. If you want to improve your own ability to learn, these lessons will help you accelerate your personal development. Readers…

  • Position Your Chapter for Success

    ATD Chapter Leader Conference, November 2022 This session trained chapter leaders in applying market analysis techniques to define their chapter’s unique niche and value proposition.

  • Getting Started with Data-Driven Chapter Governance

    ATD Chapter Leader Conference, November 2022 This session explored how chapters can leverage data to improve member retention, new member experience, program quality, volunteer pipelines, and diversity and inclusion.

  • What Won’t Change Series Introduction

    What if there were a way to be more confident about what the future holds? Most workplace futurists focus on what will be different tomorrow. There’s tremendous value in flipping the perspective, and instead asking what won’t change. Amazon founder and former CEO Jeff Bezos remarked that focusing on what won’t change is critical to…

  • To Master Your Craft, Master Your Tools

    I have a confession: most of what I do on a daily basis is not high-level talent development. A significant chunk of my professional life involves grunt work. I analyze reports, enter data into our learning management system, review task lists and project milestones, and build slide decks. All of those activities take real time.…

  • The Future of Collaboration is Remote

    It’s been a year since the COVID-19 pandemic forced the world into emergency remote work. The vaccine is being rolled out, employees are returning to the office, and companies are evaluating the lessons from a year of remote work. This last year has proven that collaboration can be done remotely. Organizations have learned to hire,…

  • Creating Metrics for Soft Skills

    One of the most frequent challenges I hear from peers in talent development is how difficult it is to build metrics for assessing soft skill development. This challenge is actually not as significant as it appears at first glance. Is the problem that we in talent development don’t know how to capture the business impact…

  • Accountability for Development

    Do the development goals you set for your direct reports matter? You may want to say yes—but unless you create the same level of accountability for development goals as you do for business results, you are communicating that development goals are second-class priorities. The pace of change is determined by the speed of accountability. When…