The Power of Poetry for Professional Writing

poetry I hear a constant refrain: we need more business writing training!  The circumstances vary but the themes are the same – we need people who can articulate clearly and with impact.  There are many ways to surround this but the one I would like to suggest is that we teach poetry. Sound a bit …

Three Traits of Top Talent

According to Forbes, businesses around the world spend over $3,300 per hire on recruiting, an increase of almost 6% in the last year. US corporations spend nearly $72 billion annually on recruiting services, staff, and products – and the worldwide number is likely three times bigger. Corporate training spend is close behind.  According to Bersin by …

Have a little faith

Faith consists in believing when it is beyond the power of reason to believe.– Voltaire At a recent conference, Andrew Blum from Trium Consulting made a passing comment in a presentation about leaders having faith in themselves. It was an interesting word that got me thinking. There are countless articles and books that discuss leadership and …

Inspiring Leadership from Tammy Duckworth

Tammy Duckworth I had the pleasure of seeing Congresswoman Tammy Duckworth speak at our company today.  For those who do not know this remarkable woman,  Ms. Duckworth is the US Representative for Illinois’ 8th congressional district and is the first Asian-American woman elected to Congress in Illinois, the first disabled woman to be elected to …

Why aren’t corporate classrooms dead?

The dominance of classroom training in corporate learning is one of the most hotly discussed topics in L&D departments around the country, perhaps the world.  Except we don’t talk about classrooms but the inverse corollary: social learning.  Peer networks.  eLearning. Mentoring.  Informal learning. We discuss these issues for a number of reasons, including: Capital resources …

Mentoring in the Digital Age

  We make a living by what we get, we make a life by what we give. That quote comes courtesy of the decidedly unsentimental Winston Churchill. Based on what I hear from colleagues in other companies and across industries, mentoring is a program that universally excites people.  Perhaps it is because unlike many other …

Feel Good About Saying Yes (Part 3 of 3)

Download full size (1289 KB) Another client group had heard of the training program that Jeff’s team had run a few months earlier.  Believing he had learned his lesson, he was not about to enter into negotiations for delivering a program without ensuring he understood the potential impact and how the result would be measured. …

Feed Good About Saying Yes (Part 2 of 3)

ROI. Is there a more dreaded ratio in training and development? ROI stands for return on investment, though notably it is also the french word for “king” which seems appropriate given the prominence this ratio has received in our industry. Even though many learning leaders I’ve spoken to believe that this is a near impossible …