Category: Talent Development

Learning on the job is difficult. With high workloads and intense time pressure, the natural incentives of the workplace push people to do rather than to practice. If managers and L&D leaders want to create a learning culture, they need to explicitly shape the environment in order to value practice as well as execution. Managers…

Last Friday, the SEWI ATD chapter shared a great discussion about building learning cultures. The starting point for the session was an article from organizational development consultant Stephen Gill on the differences between a training culture and a learning culture. In short, a training culture places the responsibility for development on training programs; the focus…

For all the buzz about micro-learning, there’s surprisingly little practical advice for leaders and managers. These practical, real-world examples of micro-learning will help you improve your employees’ skills on the job. Micro-learning is just development activities that are broken into small pieces that can be woven into the day. The traditional model of training is…

Talent development—including training, career conversations, coaching, and workforce planning—is usually treated as an intellectual problem. The key question is: what will people need to know in order to be successful…in their job, in their career, in the future of this industry? That question is important, but it’s far too narrow. The reality is that talent…

What Is 70-20-10? In talent development, the 70-20-10 ratio articulates the relative importance of different sources of learning. The ratio stems from Morgan McCall’s work at the Center for Creative Leadership, published in The Lessons of Experience, and followup research by Michael Lombardo and Robert Eichinger that led to The Leadership Machine. These researchers identified…

Today’s quick thought is inspired by the preface to Dale Carnegie’s classic How to Win Friends & Influence People. Carnegie wanted his readers to do more than just absorb his ideas—he wanted them to change their behaviors. So, he wrote a preface with nine specific steps to take in order to act on the principles…

Getting More From Training Effective managers ensure that their direct reports get the most out of training opportunities. Unfortunately, many managers take a hands-off approach to learning and development. Consequently, they miss the opportunity to use what their direct reports have learned. These missed opportunities result in feelings of disengagement (“my manager doesn’t care about…