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Keep it Real: Strategies for Adding More Authenticity to Your Training

May 15, 2012

By Trina Rimmer 

Have you ever read a sales or marketing script used for training and thought to yourself, “Who actually says this stuff?” or “No caller is ever that polite and forthcoming.”  You’re not alone in being skeptical. Most of us are understandably reluctant to embrace words, processes or ideas that don’t ring true.  When the tone, message, or content of training lacks authenticity, learners quickly tune out.  And, if your training doesn’t engage learners in a way that allows them to learn through experiencing the consequences of their choices, what’s the point of training them at all?

So how can you incorporate training strategies that ensure the learning experience reaches learners in a way that really connects to their real-world experiences? [Read more...]

View Your Career as a Jungle Gym, Not a Ladder

May 15, 2012

by Amy Franko

A woman will average 10.7 jobs in her lifetime, according to a recent Fast Company article.

I decided that the “.7” could be attributed to those of you out there doing the work of at least two people, or a job we’d rather forget!

Let’s say your career spans 30 years (and for many women, careers will be longer).  That calculates, on average, a move to a new job every 2.8 years. My own career path reflects this.  In 15 years, I’ve grown my career with six companies and have had seven unique job descriptions.

For many of us, our beliefs around how our careers will unfold were hatched by watching our parents work at the same place for their entire career, and perhaps in only a couple of jobs that entire time. To a large extent their careers were planned.  And if they were designated as “management material” they were swooped up, placed on the “management track” and away they went.

Our experience is now entirely different.  This notion of the “planned career” is as outdated as the phone I bought six months ago.

Today, when you walk in the door of a company there’s really no step-by-step formula or well-worn path to follow to your dream career or your leadership aspirations.   You design your path; you own it and are responsible for creating opportunities.

Pattie Sellers, Editor-at-Large of Fortune Magazine, captures it perfectly:

“The most successful people I know don’t think of their career as a ladder, but rather a jungle gym.”

[Read more...]

What Do Bad Meetings and Bad Training Have in Common?

May 2, 2012

A recent survey by GiveMore asked this question –

“What frustrates you most about meetings at work?”

Here were the top 10 answers:

  1. Allowing attendees to ramble and repeat the same comments and thoughts.
  2. Doesn’t start on time, stay on track, or finish on time.
  3. No specific action items or walk-away points.
  4. No clear purpose or objective.
  5. Not inspiring or motivating.
  6. Not organized. No agenda.
  7. Too long.
  8. Repeating information for late arrivals.
  9. Weak presenter (unprepared, monotone, overly redundant)
  10. Boring. Nothing new or interesting.

I couldn’t help but see most of these same answers being given for this question –

“What frustrates you most about training?” [Read more...]

Your Leadership Identity: What Are Your Leadership Habits?

May 2, 2012

This is the final article in our series on creating your leadership identity, based upon principles from Nice Girls Don’t Get the Corner Office, by Lois Frankel, Ph.D.  Be sure to read the full series, available on our Emerging Women Leaders blog.

It was Aristotle who said that we are what we repeatedly do.  Our seemingly small actions, done day in and day out, eventually create who we are.

Our small actions, done day in and day out are also known as habits.

Who you are as a person is reflected in who you are as a leader, so it makes sense then that your habits have a big stake in your leadership path and ultimate success.  With the right habits you stay on course.  With the wrong ones, it’s easy to end up off the path and in the weeds!

A focus on habits seemed to me a perfect way to close this series and help set you up for success moving forward.   Each article in our Leadership Identity series laid out actions you can take to build a certain aspect of your leadership identity.  To help you take the next steps in creating lasting habits, I’ll share this simple plan you can practice and put into place.

[Read more...]

Break These 3 Bad Design Habits

April 18, 2012

By Trina Rimmer

Being a training designer presents us with daily opportunities to challenge ourselves, push boundaries and design solutions that make our businesses successful, our clients happy, and our learning audience more effective.  But sometimes our work isn’t inspirational and it’s really hard to get ourselves psyched-up to change the world starting with annual compliance training.

However, a lack of inspiration can be made even worse with a healthy dose of design complacency. When we fall back on bad design habits we can alienate ourselves from the real problems, our audience, and ultimately our professional self-worth.

Are you guilty of any of these bad design behaviors? [Read more...]

Your Leadership Identity: Do You Think Like a Leader?

April 18, 2012

This article is part of our women’s leadership series on creating leadership identity, based on principles from Nice Girls Don’t Get the Corner Office, by Lois Frankel, Ph.D.  Be sure to refer back to the previous article of this series, on how your responses to workplace situations and people shape your leadership identity.

With the building blocks of your leadership identity, you have learned how to market, act, look, respond and sound like a leader. You have learned how to play the game of business. Now it’s time to complete the puzzle with this last building block — you must THINK like a leader.

Since starting Impact Instruction a little over 5 years ago, I’m often asked about the lessons I’ve learned, not just in being an entrepreneur but also in becoming a better leader.

A big lesson I’ve learned is the power of how I think.  Mindset affects every decision I make, from company strategy, to my leadership style, to team building and culture.  Mindset is what creates an environment where I (and my team) can grow and succeed.

This same lesson applies to you on your leadership path.  Your mindset will put into motion the actions that create your ultimate success.  To smooth the path, your beliefs about what will help you succeed at that next level may need a little fine tuning.

Here are 3 big mindset shifts to make on your leadership path: [Read more...]

Your Leadership Identity: Do You Respond Like a Leader?

April 4, 2012

This article is part of our women’s leadership series on creating leadership identity, based on principles from Nice Girls Don’t Get the Corner Office, by Lois Frankel, Ph.D. Be sure to refer back to the previous article of this series, on how playing to win shapes your leadership identity.

We have hundreds of interactions and situations we encounter in a day. They’re virtual and live; written and spoken. They take place via email, social media, phone calls, or in meetings and presentations. Your responses in any given interaction broadcast your leadership potential.

With this leadership identity trait, Dr. Frankel points out that many women are socialized to respond to situations in ways that are docile, polite, or acquiescent. Women are not typically taught to stand their ground or respond in powerful, assertive ways.

Think for a moment about how you respond to what’s happening around you. Many times you probably don’t give a conscious thought to your responses. Below are some of the ways your responses can communicate the wrong leadership message:

  • Believing that what got you here will get you there.
  • Allowing others’ opinions to have far too much leverage over your decisions.
  • Routinely putting the needs of others before your own.

We’ve all had these happen at one time or another. One of these on its own isn’t a deal breaker. But if any of these are responses you regularly engage in, it’s time to take a closer look at why it’s happening and what you can do to change it.

[Read more...]

Your Leadership Identity: Do You Play the Game to Win?

March 23, 2012

This article is part of our women’s leadership series on creating leadership identity, based on principles from Nice Girls Don’t Get the Corner Office, by Lois Frankel, Ph.D. Be sure to refer back to the previous article of this series, on the power of verbal presence in shaping your leadership identity.


What comes to mind when you think of the word “business?”

a) A chess match or sport where people are playing to win

b) An event where people come together and collaborate

c) Both a and b

d) I don’t really think about it, I’m too busy

If you answered C, you’re correct. Business and the workplace in general, are both a grounds for collaboration and teamwork, but also competition.

According to Dr. Lois Frankel, “the workplace is a game. It has rules, boundaries, winners, and losers. Not only is it a game, but the rules of the game change from organization to organization and from department to department within an organization.”

Many women don’t view business or the workplace in this way. Instead they view it as a collaborative set of events, where people are coming together for a big goal or a great cause. While this may very well be the case in your organization or department – it’s not the only thing going on.

[Read more...]

Highlights from the 2011 ASTD State of the Industry Report

March 23, 2012

The ASTD State of the Industry report is an annual review of workplace learning and development trends. It reviews how the profession performed as a whole, how companies are investing in T&D resources, as well as content and delivery trends. This article will share some of the major highlights, numbers, and trends from the current state of the industry.

[Read more...]

Moving From Training Solutions to Performance Support Solutions

March 6, 2012

It’s time the L&D industry faced some facts: Our culture’s desire for convenient, self-directed, highly accessible and instantly applicable information doesn’t just vanish when we walk through the office doors. On thecontrary, it’s the little frustrations, inconveniences, and lost time that snow-ball, eventually frustrating and alienating even the most engaged employees. If we are to further learning in the workplace and champion the needs of the businesses we support, we must move beyond training and embrace opportunities to create (or foster environments that create) new-era performance support solutions. Of course that begs the question, where do we start?

1. Understand the characteristics of a good performance support solution.

Tools that support job performance are:

  • Relevant to a specific task
  • Timely (i.e. right information at the right time)
  • Easy to access
  • Easy to use
  • Focused on need to know information

2. Analyze and synthesize old training content.

  • List and then prioritize your existing core training programs from most critical to the success of your organization to least critical.
  • Focus on critical skills to further prioritize.
  • Extract the key information and set-aside the nice-to-know stuff. [Read more...]
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