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?

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  This notion of the “planned career” is as outdated as the phone I bought six months ago.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.”

Remember the playground jungle gym from when you were a kid?  We would play for hours, never getting bored of trying new things and seeing just how high we could fly on the monkey bars.

Pattie’s comment hits home because it offers an important shift in perspective that emerging women leaders should take to heart. The business world is no longer the ladder of “career planning” but rather the jungle gym of “development planning.”  The speed of business today means absolutely everything is changing and unpredictable.  In other words, it’s very hard to plan for, and it means you need the agility and forward thinking of development instead of planning.

Your choices about your development will determine the leadership path you create.  The design of your jungle gym will have many different rungs – upward leaps, lateral moves, or even a downward step to gain a specific experience.

With all of this in mind, how you do focus more on “development planning” and less on “career planning?”  Here are a few suggestions:

• Think skill first.  Look to develop skills that are transferable across positions and industries.  One tip is to pay attention to people that are successful and determine what skills have helped them, regardless of position or company.  Examples are business development skills, presentation skills, and language fluency – all skills that are transferable.   Become well-versed on the trends of your industry and business trends as a whole.  You’ll uncover patterns in skills and knowledge to help your development planning.

• Develop technology acumen.  The language of business and the language of technology are intertwined.  You don’t have to be a technology wiz, but at today’s pace of business your willingness to become versed in technology trends and their effect on business is directly tied to your development.  A great example from my own life is the iPad.  One of our services is custom training and development; many companies are looking to design and deliver training on this new platform.  That requires me to be well-versed in how the technology affects various aspects of learning and development.

• Look for big picture experiences.  Experiences don’t have to take on the look of a formal “job” or “position.”  Look at everything you do as an experience and a way to develop skill.  As an example, I took a language immersion trip to Mexico and practiced skills I wouldn’t have otherwise had the opportunity to develop.  Skills like communicating in another language, interpersonal skills with a host family, and making my way around a different city are all transferable to my professional and personal development.   Read more about my experience and takeaways in this blog post.

• Apply for the position anyway.  I can’t tell you how many times this comes up in conversations, where women hold themselves back from going after a position they want because they don’t think they have “all” of the skills.  It’s okay if you don’t – that’s part of what taking a risk means – going after something where you don’t have all of the answers upfront.  My advice is to be calculated in your risk taking; honestly assess where your skill gaps are and get advice from a trusted mentor to help you determine if the position is a right fit for your development plan.

• Continually build relationships.  If you read our Emerging Women Leaders blog often enough, you know this is something I’m always writing about!  Your network of relationships is one of your greatest avenues for building your leadership path as well as helping others.  Make sure you are connecting with and serving your network.  Make sure you’re reaching out to influencers and being visible within your company and industry.  This is where you learn about new opportunities for development.  Relationship building should be in every emerging woman leader’s development plan.

Visit http://www.impactinstruction.com for more information about custom training solutions and professional development services offered by Impact Instruction Group.  Amy Franko works with emerging women leaders, teaching concepts from the international best-sellers Nice Girls Don’t Get the Corner Office and See Jane Lead to many national companies and organizations.

© 2012 Impact Instruction Group

You are welcome to reprint this article. Please include the article in its entirety along with the bio and copyright. 

“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?”

We as training designers and facilitators can take this same feedback about meetings as an opportunity to make training better – more inspiring, more meaningful, and more useful.  (And I’m guessing that anyone who takes our training has just come from or is headed into . . . a meeting.)

Here is a top ten list of quick tips for making sure your training avoids the frustration factor:

1. In a live training experience, watch out for the disgruntled and the disengaged.  Give them some individual attention during a break to try and bring them around, or at least neutralize them so they don’t get to others.
2.  Start on time, finish on time.  You’ll gain the respect of your audience with when you show respect for their time and priorities.
3.  Get specific with all action items and takeaways.  These items should be clear, easy to understand, and repeated often.  No one should walk out fuzzy or unclear about what actions are expected of them or what the takeaways are.  Use those action items and takeaways again to follow up with participants.
4. Get specific will all objectives.  Like #3, they should be clear, easy to understand, and to the point.  No fluff, nothing nebulous, no pedagogical learning speak, and keep them to a reasonable number.
5. Would you be inspired and motivated by the training you’re designing or facilitating?  I know, I know.  If we’re being really honest here, there is just some training that’s never going to be highly inspiring or motivating.  Even if the subject at hand is dull and boring – what can you do to make it real and connect with the person on the other end?  Connection creates motivation and inspiration.  To help with this, think story or scenarios – look for those places to make a connection.
6. Make sure everything is organized and the agenda is clear.  This means doing the little things – communicating ahead of time with participants to get them motivated and providing any logistics.  Is your agenda clear; are all of the materials organized?  Make it easy.  All the details count.
7.  If there’s one thing I see over and over again, it’s trying to include too much.  Then what happens?  You run late, don’t get to it, or rush through it.  None of which are good options. Scrutinize everything in your design, and then remove at least one thing from it.
8.  Avoid repeating information for people who are late.  I have a colleague who makes latecomers sing.  I recently witnessed the ABCs and a school fight song.  If nothing else, it does make for a good laugh and just the thought of “training karaoke” might cure tardiness!
9. Your ability to be a strong and adaptable presenter is a difference maker.  If this is a weak area for you, fix it.  You might take a presentation skills course, or work with a mentor who is strong in this area.  Even seasoned presenters still work on their skills, yours truly included.  Presentation skills are priceless, regardless of how often you find yourself at the front of a live or virtual classroom.
10. You have the power to kill boring, stale, and uninteresting training.  It’s tempting to do things the same old way, especially when we’re staring at a project list a mile long.  But if we’re going to make a true impact through training, occasional risk is part of the game.  Sometimes we need to get out of our everyday environment – look for ideas and inspiration in topics completely outside of your organization, your topic of expertise, and training design itself.

Now . . . imagine if instead of having a top ten list of things that frustrate your people about training, they have a top ten list of how training is making them better – more engaged, more productive, and more inspired!

Visit http://www.impactinstruction.com for more information about custom blended training solutions and professional development services offered by Impact Instruction Group. Amy Franko is an Apex Award of Excellence winner for training design.

© 2012 Impact Instruction Group

You are welcome to reprint this article. Please include the article in its entirety along with the bio and copyright. 

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.

Step 1:  Get Your Bearings

First, take some time to review the series and each article.  They’re packaged and ready for you here.

Next, you’ll want to assess yourself on each of the 7 leadership identity categories.  This is where you are today, keeping within the context of your career.  Create a ranked list, with 1 being where you’re the strongest.  This will help you prioritize your direction. For example, your ranked list might look like this:

1. Act Like a Leader
2. Think Like a Leader
3. Personal Brand
4. Visual Presence of Leader
5. How You Play the Game of Business
6. Respond Like a Leader
7. Verbal Presence of a Leader

Step 2: Set Your Direction

With your ranked list in hand, look at your strongest and weakest categories.  In our example, our strongest is Act Like a Leader and our weakest is Verbal Presence of a Leader.   These two areas are where you’ll begin your action plan.  I’ll let you in on the method to my madness in working this way.  I’m a big fan of working from strengths first, but I like to make sure I’m not ignoring weaker areas.  So beginning your action plan from a place of strength will help you to build on the successful leadership habits you already have, and give you some quick successes.  Those quick successes will create the boost you need to establish new habits in the weaker areas.

For your two selected categories, go back to the corresponding article and then choose one tip from each that you’d like to work on. Try to pick one that you feel will give you the biggest return, based on your projects, your development plan, and your goals.  Remember that you can modify it to fit your situation so you get the most out of it.

In our example, it might look like this:

• Act Like a Leader:  Ask great questions.
• Verbal Presence of a Leader:  Practice the TAPS formula in my next meeting.

Step 3:  Practice, Track, Repeat

Once you’ve decided on the tips to implement, it’s time to put them into practice.  Commit to yourself that you’ll work on this daily for the next 30 days.  It takes that long to cement a new habit, to make it subconscious and part of your everyday behavior.  Odds are you’ll find that the new habit creates other positive changes!

Some tips to help you along the way:

• Share what you’re working on with your manager or a mentor.  Better yet, put it into your leadership development plan.

• If working on two actions is overwhelming, begin with one and build from there.  Do what you need to do to set yourself up for the best possible success!

• Track your progress in a way that works for you.  It could be as simple as marking it in a calendar, or keeping a more detailed journal.  The idea is to be consistent and make it something you’ll do each day.

At the end of the 30 days, check in with yourself.  How often did you practice?  How well is the new habit established?   Based on that check in, decide if you need another 30 days with these same actions, or if you’re ready to take on some new ones.

If you’re ready to move on, here are some suggestions:

• Continue with the same categories, and new actions
• Move on to the next categories in your list – working your way inward (to #2 and #6)

If you’re not ready to move on, that’s completely OK.  Stay with it and give yourself another chance to make the change stick.

One of the best pieces of advice I received from a mentor was to be more compassionate with myself, to give myself a break.  (Especially for all of you perfectionists out there, I understand!) True change takes time, practice, and some self-compassion.  Remember these are lasting habits that will make you the leader you want to be.

Would you to like to learn more about assessing your leadership identity?  Contact us today for information on personalized assessments.

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?

Skipping the Needs Analysis

Raise your hand if you’d be willing to undergo major surgery without first undergoing some less-invasive testing?

Not much of a choice, is it? Most of us wouldn’t be too keen on trusting the word of a doctor who would literally operate on a hunch. We’d like some empirical evidence before we invest in a costly, painful, and potentially risky procedure.

And yet, how many of us are guilty of skipping over the L&D version of pre-operative testing? How often do we tell our business cohorts to ‘just trust us’ about the root cause of a performance gap? At one time or another, most of us have been forced by timing or circumstance to eliminate or minimize the needs analysis process. But when we short-change front-end analysis or dismiss it all together, we become the equivalent of a quack — randomly applying training solutions without first understanding what’s needed.

Getting Married to a Concept

Confession: Sometimes I fall in love with my own ideas.

When you love what you do and are passionate about the value of learning it’s easy to get super-excited about your work. But with all that excitement there often comes the ‘reality check’ moment when a client tells you that the high-concept idea you’ve fallen for is hopelessly impractical. Does that mean it’s time to toss aside your brilliant concept and settle for something more mundane?

Not necessarily. Here’s how I see it: The essence of being a good designer is working within tight constraints. Our best designs surface when we allow those boundaries to inspire us rather than defeat us. The most effective designs are ones that manage to achieve a balance in the midst of many opposing factors. The ultimate designer skill you can bring to the table is this – a willingness to set-aside pre-conceived notions and apply elements of your out-of-the-box thinking in ways that balance business needs and resources with beauty and ingenuity.

Interested in seeing how other (non L&D) designers are collaborating and innovating within tight constraints? Check out this great video about IDEO – a design firm challenged by ABC’s Nightline to re-invent the shopping cart.

Speaking in Jargon

I was working with a client recently when I caught myself saying, “Less on screen text should help us lighten the cognitive load.”

While that statement was in fact true, and a solid design recommendation given the bullet-riddled, text-heavy PPT screen we were reviewing, I could tell by the expression on her face that I’d lost her.

Good designers know that you need to have meaningful conversations to build a successful collaboration. This means you need to speak in language that everyone understands. Whether you’re trying to get buy-in for your design ideas with business leaders or act as a credible internal consultant to a group of SMEs, you really can’t afford to alienate anyone with jargon-filled statements that are less about building understanding and more about demonstrating your design prowess. Yes, on occasion it may be necessary to load your statements with design jargon to establish your authority, but for most interactions, wouldn’t it be much more productive to communicate as a trusted partner – in a language everyone understands?

Ready to learn more?

Visit http://www.impactinstruction.com for more information about custom blended training solutions and professional development services offered by Impact Instruction Group. Amy Franko is an Apex Award of Excellence winner for training design.

© 2012 Impact Instruction Group

You are welcome to reprint this article. Please include the article in its entirety along with the bio and copyright.

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:

1. Be the conductor of the orchestra.  If you’ve ever watched an orchestra, it’s the conductor who is responsible for making sure the individual instrument sections come together and perform.  The conductor doesn’t play an instrument – it’s his or her job to make sure each musician has the needed direction to perform the part, so the end result is a beautiful musical number.  What would happen if the conductor sat down in a section and picked up an instrument to play?  There would be no one watching the big picture or directing the entire group. The overall musical number would fall apart.

When I became a leader I became that conductor, and I had to approach business with a whole new perspective.  I was no longer responsible for my individual part, my sheet of music.  I needed to operate with the big picture in mind, the musical number.  My role became to create a team of people who had the right skills and could work well together.  I had to provide the tools, direction, and support, and then allow them to play their individual parts.

1. Time is your most valuable currency.  We all have the same 24 hours in a day and 7 days in a week.  Our leadership path is determined by how that time is invested.   I used to have a mindset that would lead to comments like, “Well, it’s just my time, at least it’s not costing me money.”   Or, “I don’t have the time to find the right resource/team member/fill in the blank to get this done. It’ll be faster to just do it myself.”

What those comments really meant was that I didn’t treat time as the valuable currency that it is.  I needed to view time in a new way, so I could make better decisions about reaching company goals.Think about how you’re investing your time.  Know that there will always be tasks and projects vying for your attention.  The most effective leaders are able to discern where their time is best spent. Then, they find ways to delegate, automate, or remove those tasks that aren’t creating a high-performing team or the best results.

1. Pay attention to the forest and the trees. I’ve heard the saying many times that the best leaders are strategic, and they leave the tactics up to someone else. But if you look at any given situation, its success or failure most likely came down to both.  You can’t have one without the other.  A good strategy without any tactical execution is a pipe dream.  A set of tactics with no direction is like watching a hamster wheel – it goes in circles forever, but never gets anywhere.

It’s about strategic thinking, vision and communication. If you have leadership aspirations, big picture strategic thinking is important. You have to be able to envision and articulate the direction of your organization or department.  Without that skill, you can’t direct or motivate your team.  You can’t be sure you’ve hired people with the right skills or fit.  You can’t be the conductor of the orchestra.

It’s also about balance, proper delegation and trust. Don’t underestimate the value of being able to grasp tactics well.  It helps you to see where potential pitfalls might be, or where you might need to course correct to achieve the big picture.  You don’t need to know every detail – that’s what your team is for.  They should have the skills to execute the tactics, and communicate with you on their progress in achieving a goal.

I’ve found the best way to blend the forest and the trees — the strategic with the tactical — is by asking questions.  Ask your team what steps they follow, what’s involved in completing the tasks that are part of your overall strategy.  Ask them where potential challenges are, or if they have ideas on how to get to the end result in a better way.  It builds better relationships and helps you achieve your strategic goals.

You not only have the power to think like a leader, you ARE a leader. Continue your leadership journey with these mindset shifts and you will undoubtedly enjoy the road ahead.

Ready to learn more?

Visit http://www.impactinstruction.com for more information about custom training solutions and professional development services offered by Impact Instruction Group.  Amy Franko works with emerging women leaders, teaching concepts from the international best-seller Nice Girls Don’t Get the Corner Office to many national companies and organizations.

© 2012 Impact Instruction Group

You are welcome to reprint this article. Please include the article in its entirety along with the bio and copyright.

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.

• Believing that what got you here will get you there. This is about internalizing messages. I’ll give you an example from my life. I’m the oldest of five daughters (I know, my poor dad!) and there have always been lots of expectations of me, some imposed by family and some self-imposed. One of those expectations was being “ultra-responsible.” That expectation has served me very well throughout my life and career, to a point. My response to that expectation was to always strive for perfection in any project or assignment given to me. It was done well, it was done on time, and I managed nearly every detail.I had to change when I became a leader. I had to learn new leadership responses – delegating, trusting, and to letting go of influencing every single detail of a project or product. In order to be successful, my response now had to be allowing others to step up and take responsibility.

• Allowing others’ opinions to have way too much leverage over your decisions. This has a lot of similarities to polling, or unnecessarily asking for the input of others. Where it’s different is when you “know your stuff” and offer a solution or opinion based on your expertise and experience. Then it’s counteracted by another’s opinion and you find yourself second-guessing your judgment or wanting to avoid conflict. The end result is that you accept their judgment as better than yours and it affects the path you take.When you find yourself in this situation, never assume that someone knows more than you – especially when you have the expertise and experience. A new response is to ask the other person to share more information with you. This will help you get to the “why” of his or her opinion before allowing it to sway your decisions.

• Routinely putting the needs of others before your own. From time to time, we have to put the needs of others before our own; it’s part of the give-and-take of life and work. The key is paying attention to whether you’re routinely putting everyone ahead of you. If it’s routine, it’s a problem, and it manifests itself into things like:

­ – Not advocating for yourself when it comes to assignments and raises

­ – Routinely canceling personal plans for work obligations

­ – Putting everyone in your family ahead of yourself

­ – Having no free time outside of work and family to pursue other interests

­ – Allowing yourself to be a “yes” person to every request

How do you break this habit? Begin with something small and practice. The next time someone needs you to do something that you know can be handled in another way, graciously say “I wish I could help you, but I can’t at this time.” And, if it makes sense, offer another idea on how to delegate the task. Another great habit to get into is scheduling a given amount of free time each day or several days a week. It can be any time of the day where you shut everything off and do something for yourself. Take a walk, indulge a hobby, or just enjoy the peace and quiet. This new way of responding will give you time and space – and it will make you a better leader.

Ready to learn more?

Visit http://www.impactinstruction.com for more information about custom training solutions and professional development services offered by Impact Instruction Group. Amy Franko works with emerging women leaders, teaching concepts from the international best-seller Nice Girls Don’t Get the Corner Office to many national companies and organizations.

© 2012 Impact Instruction Group

You are welcome to reprint this article. Please include the article in its entirety along with the bio and copyright.

, 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.

My question to you: Are you playing to win the game of business? If you’re not sure, here’s how you can tell if you’re not playing to win:

• You avoid office politics or openly tell others you don’t “play the political game.”
• You routinely take on assignments beneath your skill or job grade.
• You don’t consciously build relationships and especially avoid reaching out to influential people in your organization.
• You narrowly interpret the rules of your department or organization, and avoid taking calculated risks.
• You routinely avoid asking for what you need or sharing your opinions.

If you have higher leadership aspirations, it’s important to accept the fact – and even embrace it – that business is a game, and the most strategic players win.

Let me also say this – playing to win doesn’t mean engaging in actions that are unethical, immoral, or being someone other than yourself. I personally think this one mindset singlehandedly holds women back. We’ve been ingrained with a belief that playing to win is completely negative, and instead we need to judge each situation on its own merits. Playing to win is a positive – because when we do so, we build our leadership identity, increase our odds of growing the number of women into higher levels of leadership, and impact our organizations and communities as we’ve envisioned.

So how do you become a better player at the game of business, and do so with integrity? Below are just a few ways – after you read through them, begin with one to implement over the next 30 days.

• Learn to play a strategic game or competitive sport. The lessons learned in decision making, team dynamics, and thinking ahead all apply to the workplace.

• Analyze each assignment you have and ask yourself: Is this a stretch for me? Is it right in-line with my current skills? Or, is it beneath my skills? And if you routinely find yourself with assignments beneath your skills or right in-line with your skills, talk with your leader about how you can change that.

• Pay attention to how you interpret rules in your department or organization. For example, do you routinely ask for permission on things that really don’t require it? Are you so strict with expense management that you refuse to spend approved dollars on items needed to do your job? Do you look at something as a narrow “yes or no” without even a second thought? If these are normal behaviors for you, next time be more flexible on something that’s a small risk and see what results you get.

• Remember that part of your job role is to build relationships – no matter what your title. Take time each week (5-10% of your working hours) to get out of your office and get to know others. It’s especially helpful to get to know others in different departments or divisions.

• Nix phrases like “I don’t play office politics,” or “I don’t play the game” from your vocabulary. While you may still hang onto those beliefs and need to work through them, don’t verbalize them to others. It only paints you in less of a leadership light.

• Shadow someone in your organization who is successful in a sales role – this could be an account executive, a sales manager, or an inside sales person. Sales is a profession of understanding needs, being consultative, and negotiating for successful outcomes.

• Take classes in improvisation or negotiation skills – both are critical for playing well at the game of business.

Ready to learn more?

Visit http://www.impactinstruction.com for more information about custom training solutions and professional development services offered by Impact Instruction Group. Amy Franko works with emerging women leaders, teaching concepts from the international best-seller Nice Girls Don’t Get the Corner Office to many national companies and organizations.

© 2012 Impact Instruction Group

You are welcome to reprint this article. Please include the article in its entirety along with the bio and copyright.

• The report presents data in three groupings: consolidated (all organizations participating in the survey), ASTD BEST Award winners, and newly-added Global Fortune 500 companies. This article focuses on the consolidated figures.

• The data points used in this report are from 2010; they’re analyzed and reported by ASTD as the 2011 report.

Overall Investment in Learning

Overall, organizations saw investment growth in employee learning and development. ASTD estimates that $171 billion was invested in 2010, an increase from 2009’s figure of $125 billion.

• Of that figure, about $103 billion was spent on the internal learning function, or 60%.
• About $68 billion was allocated to external vendors and tuition reimbursement, or about 40%.

At Impact Instruction Group we’re seeing this investment trend as well. Companies are being very selective in which projects to pursue, and we’re seeing greater attention to tying a project’s learning outcomes to business outcomes. Learn more about 5 critical questions to ask when making the business case for a project.

Learning and the Bottom Line

As training professionals we are constantly looking for that return on investment and contribution to the bottom line. ASTD surveyed all organizations on how their learning expenditures compared to revenue and profit results.

• Learning Expenditures as a % of Revenue: 1.1%
• Learning Expenditures as a % of Profit: 5.3%

The report doesn’t specifically prescribe what organizations should be spending on learning compared to revenue or profit percentages. We recommend organizations measure where they stand in relation to the survey data and trend expenditures over a 3-5 year timeline.

T&D Staff Reach

The report reviews the reach of training and development staff across the enterprise, such as ratios of staff to employees, content production, and direct expenditure per employee.

• The average ratio of learning staff to employees was 1:227, taking into consideration the effect of outsourcing on staff resources and availability. This is a drop from 2009 (1:240).

• The production of learning content decreased slightly in 2010. The consolidated survey shows that the average learning hours made available decreased to 244 hours per staff member, down from 264 hours in 2009.

According to ASTD, “hours of learning content available represents the total number of hours of formal learning content available. This includes live classes, workshops, seminars, online course catalog content, video, and print materials. If the formal training available per learning staff member is within the normal range, it suggests that the learning organization is managing the production and storage of learning content adequately. Too large a figure, however, could indicate inadequate management of the inventory within the learning portfolio . . . or that an LMS platform fails to match the needs of the organization.”

Content Areas

ASTD measures the distribution of content provided by employers, organized into 12 primary topics. Surveyed organizations then report the content amount available by percentage for each topic. The top investment areas tend to reach larger proportions of the employee population, while the lowest investments percentage-wise tend to be for smaller, more specialized audiences.

The top investment areas:

• Managerial and supervisory content (13%)
• Profession or industry specific content (11%)
• Processes, Procedures, Business Practices, Compliance (10%)

The lowest investment areas:

• Sales (6%)
• Executive Development (6%)
• Basic skills (4%)

Delivery

Live instructor-led classroom delivery still makes up the bulk of formal learning, at almost 60% of formal learning hours. This is almost identical to figures reported in 2009.

Technology-based delivery of learning decreased, accounting for 33% of formal learning hours. ASTD classifies e-learning methods as online and remote instructor-led, self-paced via network, self-paced non-networked, and non-computer technology (such as mobile devices). Mobile device delivery is on the rise and was independently measured for the first time in this report.

At Impact Instruction, we’re receiving more requests for video-based design and delivery. Video is quickly becoming a go-to method, whether as stand-alone pieces, or as part of a larger, blended delivery. The types of design include interview style as well as scripted pieces. Tablet design and delivery is a hot topic in terms of interest, and with the larger organizations we work with, it’s being adopted in targeted groups, or it’s still in the research phases.

For additional data and other ad-hoc surveys, visit www.astd.org.

Visit http://www.impactinstruction.com for more information about custom blended training solutions and professional development services offered by Impact Instruction Group. Amy Franko is an Apex Award of Excellence winner for training design.

© 2012 Impact Instruction Group

You are welcome to reprint this article. Please include the article in its entirety along with the bio and copyright.

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.

3. Transform!

Ready to get started? Here are ten transformational ideas to consider:

• 1. Turn case studies into a library of skill-based practice scenarios managers can use for coaching their staff, or that staff can use to practice their skills on their own or with a colleague.
• 2. Re-work existing trainer or manager-led activities into independent study exercises.
• 3. Replace step/action quick-reference guides and paper job aids with quick “how to” screencasts and demos. (Check out Screenr Business)
• 4. Design hybrid tools. For example, give classroom training participants worksheets and then have them use those worksheets as the basis for designing their own job aids.
• 5. Turn click and read online training into downloadable, task-oriented check-lists or action planners to help team members apply their learning.
• 6. Replace bullet-riddled, text-heavy PowerPoint slides with ones that ask a question or provoke debate within the audience.  Not only does this turn a passive experience into a more interactive one, it also gives you an opportunity to collect and catalog best practice tips from your audience.
• 7. Move frequently referenced documents, presentation files, or .pdf forms to a central online repository so everyone can view them as needed.
• 8. Use several short audio podcasts to refresh key ideas, rather than circulate the same dated, lengthy training video.
• 9. Distill wordy explanations of concepts into sleek infographics.
• 10. Encourage the use of blogs for employees to share their best practice tips and advice with colleagues. Nothing sells an idea like hearing it from a successful peer!

Ready to learn more?

Visit http://www.impactinstruction.com for more information about custom blended training solutions and professional development services offered by Impact Instruction Group. Amy Franko is an Apex Award of Excellence winner for training design.

© 2012 Impact Instruction Group

You are welcome to reprint this article. Please include the article in its entirety along with the bio and copyright.