Thursday, August 15, 2013

5 Best Practices of Training and Development Professionals - ASTD

ASTD has created this resource to highlight the five best practices of learning professionals that
enable you to concentrate your efforts, be more strategic, and maximize your impact on your team and organization.
Each of the best practices highlights a specific concept or tool and explains:
  • who would use it
  • why you would use it
  • how you would benefit
  • why your boss would care
  • why your organization would care

 << Download Your Free Copy Now >>

Friday, August 02, 2013

ASTD is on Google Plus

We are excited to announce that we are on Google Plus now. Add us to your circle to get T&D news and updates.

Tuesday, July 02, 2013

Free E-Book: Understanding Mobile Learning

The audience for mobile devices wants to be able to learn from any device at anytime, anywhere. This creates a challenge, as we have to plan, develop, and deliver tools and content that can be used in all facets of learning, as well as work on the range of devices we use now and will use in the future. This e-book shows the reasons why mobile learning has seen such recent growth and what areas are best suited for this type of learning.
With this 20 page e-book you will be able to answer: 
  • what is mobile learning?
  • how mobile learning differs from e-learning?
  • what are the benefits of mobile learning?
  • why you should consider mobile learning?
  • when is mobile learning appropriate?
  • how to Design successful mobile learning programs?
  • what are the ingredients for a successful mobile learning strategy?
  • what is the future of mobile learning?

    Download your free copy today >>

Thursday, June 06, 2013

Improve Communication Skills With a Positive “No” by Kimberly Gerber


Last week I started a series on de-cluttering your communications habits to create more effective results. In this post I will share tips to improve your communication skills by learning to decline more powerfully and positively. For a lot of people, saying “no” is really hard. For others, saying “no” gracefully seems next to impossible—yet both situations have disastrous implications.

“No” is a leadership word. To be effective in any type of leadership role, we must master the art of the decline. More importantly, the ability to decline with grace has the multi-pronged benefit of reducing your to-do list while preserving relationships and building trust with one other. continue reading

Tuesday, May 14, 2013

Free E-Book on Creative Facilitation Techniques for Training | ASTD


Creative Facilitation Techniques for Training
Engage Your Learners to Maximize Performance

When people are engaged in the learning experience, they return to work more likely to improve their performance. Use these creative facilitation techniques to capture your learners' attention and hold their interest, in any environment.
This e-book will help you:
  • understand which techniques are best suited for each environment and how to implement them
  • consider the advantages and potential limitations of each technique
  • adjust to sudden changes in a training environment, ensuring the facilitator is always prepared
  • select exercises that suit the environment but are also creative
  • engage your learners, and prepare them for maximum performance.
Grab your free copy today >>

Wednesday, March 13, 2013

Change Management Certificate by ASTD

Managing change is more critical than ever, as organizations are affected by uncertain economic conditions, changing demographics, rapid technological innovation and other global trends. In response to these factors, organizational change leaders must drive improvements in efficiency, productivity, and service quality. This program establishes a comprehensive change model that can be immediately applied to current situations. The change management certificate consists of eight interactive modules, which include case studies and application exercises to help build your competency as a change agent.

Upcoming Programs:

  •  Mar 25-26, 2013 - Alexandria, VA
  •  May 17-18, 2013 - Dallas, TX
  •  Jul 22-23, 2013 - Chicago, IL
  •  Sep 10-11, 2013 - Honolulu, HI
  •  Sep 26-27, 2013 - Orlando, FL
  •  Nov 04-05, 2013 - Alexandria, VA
  •  Dec 03-04, 2013 - New York, NY

Investment:

  • Member Price: $1,095
  • List Price: $1,395

Tuesday, February 05, 2013

ASTD Career Navigator

The ASTD Career Navigator will help you explore the career roles you can aspire to, the skills necessary to function effectively in each role, and the resources that are available to help build necessary skills. Assess your current skills and invite feedback from another person. After completing the assessment you will receive a report that shows you how you rate yourself against the target proficiencies needed in that position. Resources will then be recommended to close any proficiency gaps. more

Monday, January 07, 2013

How Do You Define Talent Management?


 An organization's ability to integrate and manage talent effectively has never been more essential than in today's volatile business market. Unfortunately, for many organizations simply defining talent management is difficult. Previous research on talent management rarely underlies a common agreed-upon definition, leading ASTD/i4cp to conduct a study on Talent Management Practices and Opportunities.
While most leaders do not agree on one narrow definition of talent management, they do seem to share an idea about the basic parameters of the subject. After careful identification of the variables comprising talent management, ASTD/i4cp defined talent management in this way:
  • A holistic approach to optimizing human capital, which enables an organization to drive short- and long-term results by building culture, engagement, capability, and capacity through integrated talent acquisition, development, and deployment processes that are aligned to business goals. continue reading 

Wednesday, December 19, 2012

Mobile Learning Certificate by ASTD

The growing presence of mobile devices worldwide has resulted in a dramatic change in the way people learn. Businesses, organizations, and academic institutions need to respond to the increasing demand from their learners to deliver training, learning, and performance support through mobile applications. Mobile learning (or m-learning) implementation is an ambitious goal and requires a wide range of knowledge about all aspects of this new and growing platform.

  •  Jan 28-29, 2013 - San Jose, CA
  •  Feb 28-Mar 01, 2013 - Alexandria, VA
  •  May 17-18, 2013 - Dallas, TX
  •  Sep 19-20, 2013 - Seattle (Kirkland), WA
  •  Nov 07-08, 2013 - Atlanta, GA

Investment:

  • Member Price: $1,095
  • List Price: $1,395



Program Details           Registration Details         Learning Objectives       

Friday, December 14, 2012

Skills for Coaching Employees


(Business2Community.com) -- Successful businesses recognize the importance of quality leadership. Having skilled mentors at hand to encourage and engage contact center employees can make or break desired performance levels. While many supervisors and managers are natural leaders, others may struggle when required to praise or discipline employees. Coaching plays an important role in the success of each team or department, and contributes to the overall success a company. If your center suffers from lackluster leadership, provide supervisors and managers with call center employee coaching training and watch revenues increase.

Coaching Skills Training Increases Employee Productivity
When employees’ are supervised by effective leaders, their productivity increases. Effective leaders are skilled at praising employees for a job well-done, and expert at correcting undesirable employee behaviors. Call center coaching skills training teaches supervisors and managers how to connect with employees. When employees’ are engaged they are more receptive to coaching, and management is able to maximize time spent with each employee to improve his or her performance...  continue reading
Read more.

Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Four Key Skills to Change Company Culture by Joseph Grenny


Earlier this year, Goldman Sachs’ culture came under fire following an employee’s scathing op-ed piece in The New York Times. The employee lambasted Goldman Sachs for claiming to uphold one set of highly moral written cultural rules but in reality operating on quite another. He wrote about the enormous gap between what employees were told to do and what they actually did when interacting with customers and colleagues.

Unfortunately, corporate cultures, or cultural operating systems, like the one contested at Goldman Sachs are the rule rather than the exception. Powerful and toxic unwritten rules are steering our organizations to year-end reports filled with disgruntled employees, dissatisfied customers and mediocre results.

Cultural operating systems (COS) are the written and unwritten rules that guide employee behavior and influence the bottom-line. The measure of a good cultural operating system is the degree to which it enables an organization to execute superbly and innovate consistently.

More Related at: Human Capital COP

Monday, November 12, 2012

Time Management Training by ASTD


Time management training defines the elements of effective time management and provides a blueprint for improving organizational skills and increasing productivity.

Time Management Training reveals how to help others develop strategies for increased productivity and effectiveness. Workshops cover scheduling, delegating, procrastinating, managing distractions, overcommitting, managing email, and completing paperwork.. read more

Thursday, November 08, 2012

From Traditional Instruction to Instructional Design 2.0 by Jane Bozarth


The opportunities to broaden the reach of the L&D department, and promote participant interaction and shared learning, are now limitless with social media.
We’re working in a wonderful era of easy-to-use, readily available social media technologies ideally suited to learning and instruction. These tools―blogs, wikis, social networking sites, microblog sites, video sites, and more―provide wonderful, new opportunities to invite participation from our learners.

Anecdotal reports from learning and development (L&D) professionals indicate that trainers and instructional designers are enthusiastic about and interested in using new tools and approaches, but just don’t have a good understanding of how to do so. Industry news and technology aficionados offer frequent updates about new social media tools (such as the recently launched Google+) or updates to old ones—often without much in the way of ideas for integrating them into practice.

Advantages are many: Social media allow more participation over a span of time, encourage people to “learn out loud” for the benefit of others, and provide ways to more closely embed learning into work. So what are some strategies for workplace learning practitioners seeking to incorporate these new tools into their training design?


Monday, November 05, 2012

Training Certificate | Train-the-Trainer Program by ASTD


The Premier Train-the-Trainer Program.
This three-day workshop is a practical, how-to overview of the entire training function. It prepares new trainers with critical training skills and introduces seasoned practitioners to the latest techniques for delivering powerful training. This includes being introduced to the ASTD Competency Study, which forms the foundation of the ASTD Training Certificate.
More Details: Train the Trainer Details

  •  Nov 12-14, 2012 - San Francisco, CA
  •  Nov 28-30, 2012 - New York, NY
  •  Dec 11-13, 2012 - Chicago, IL
  •  Dec 17-19, 2012 - Atlanta, GA
  •  Jan 27-29, 2013 - San Jose, CA
  •  Feb 06-08, 2013 - Alexandria, VA
  •  Apr 15-17, 2013 - Los Angeles (El Segundo), CA
  •  May 16-18, 2013 - Dallas, TX
  •  Jun 17-19, 2013 - Alexandria, VA
  •  Jul 10-12, 2013 - Seattle (Kirkland), WA
  •  Sep 16-18, 2013 - Philadelphia, PA
  •  Sep 18-20, 2013 - Alexandria, VA
  •  Oct 02-04, 2013 - Toronto, Ontario
  •  Dec 04-06, 2013 - New York, NY
Investment:
  • Member Price: $1,395
  • List Price: $1,695

Testimonial: 
             I just want to mention how life changing the certificate program was. I don't use those words lightly. I had never attended anything like the ASTD Training Certificate and my eyes were opened to the world of training and development. I was energized to reach new heights with my training. It's not often that something is not only career changing, but life changing.
Mark, a past participant of the
Training Certificate Program 

Friday, November 02, 2012

ASTD's Coaching Certificate


Help others develop, take action, and make better decisions.
Improve your clients' ability to set goals and achieve satisfying results by helping them identify and take advantage of their natural strengths. Participants will learn a model that outlines a coaching process they can use with individuals, teams, or an entire organization, and will practice foundational coaching competencies through role plays, group exercises, and case studies.
More Details: Coaching Certification Program:

  •  Nov 14-15, 2012 - Dallas, TX
  •  Nov 26-27, 2012 - New York, NY
  •  Dec 11-12, 2012 - Chicago, IL
  •  Feb 14-15, 2013 - Los Angeles (El Segundo), CA
  •  Mar 04-05, 2013 - Alexandria, VA
  •  May 17-18, 2013 - Dallas, TX
  •  Jul 18-19, 2013 - New York, NY
  •  Sep 23-24, 2013 - Alexandria, VA
  •  Nov 14-15, 2013 - New York, NY
Investment:
  • Member Price: $1,095
  • List Price: $1,395

Facilitators: Lisa K. Nabors, R.W (Bob) Johnson, Virginia Bianco-Mathis


Testimonial: 
             Participating in the ASTD Coaching Certificate Program was an invaluable experience that will benefit me tremendously in my professional career. The facilitator demonstrated his vast knowledge from more than 20 years as a coach by providing guidance through real-world examples of situations that we may encounter, along with the necessary coaching skills. In addition, the program was structured to help ensure that we understood how to apply the principles we learned in actual circumstances.
Fred Polirer
Performance Specialist
Administaff



Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Career Wellbeing

Gallup researchers recently conducted studies of people in more than 150 countries to identify core elements that define human wellbeing. Their research is detailed in Wellbeing: The Five Essential Elements by Tom Rath and Jim Harter.  Their findings describe the human experience from suffering to thriving in five universal categories of wellbeing: career, social, financial, physical, and community.
Career wellbeing was determined to be the most critical of the five elements. “Career” is defined as what you do each day and how you occupy your time, including home and family care, volunteer work, community participation, school, or other activities.
Read More: Career Wellbeing    
More About Career Development

Blended Learning Certificate by ASTD


Go beyond traditional classroom learning.
Today's learning professionals are under pressure to address ever-evolving skills needed in their organizations, and they are being asked to do so with limited resources and time. This ASTD program provides the roadmap for creating high-impact solutions that address these needs by combining various learning platforms, methods, and formats to motivate learners, produce real results, and increase productivity. After this workshop, participants will be able to take immediate steps to design blended learning solutions using the tools and action plan provided.
  •  Nov 12-13, 2012 - San Diego, CA
  •  Nov 28-29, 2012 - New York, NY
  •  Dec 04-05, 2012 - Chicago (Schaumburg), IL
  •  Jan 28-29, 2013 - San Jose, CA
  •  Mar 18-19, 2013 - Alexandria, VA
  •  May 17-18, 2013 - Dallas, TX
  •  Jul 15-16, 2013 - Los Angeles (El Segundo), CA

Facilitators: Edmond Manning, Jennifer Hofmann, Nadine Martin

Pricing:


Member Price: $1,295
List Price: $1,595


Friday, October 26, 2012

The Science of Happiness at Work


What drives you to be happy at work and why does it matter? The iOpener Institute and ASTD are giving you the opportunity to take an evidence-based benchmarked assessment. This new and unique tool will offer you personal insights and an understanding of how to leverage happiness at work for yourself, your teams and your organizations.
But why does it matter? Our empirical data shows Happiness at Work drives increased performance, productivity and a sense of achieving potential.  Seven years of research and development have resulted in ROI-linked metrics that enable orgs, teams and individuals to assess the status quo, analyze the results then act on the findings.

Read More at: The Science of Happiness at Work 

Thursday, October 25, 2012

Communities of Practice


ASTD’s Communities of Practice help you find information that is relevant to your needs, and connect with today’s thought leaders.
Each community focuses on a key area of the learning and development field and is led by a community manager whose in-depth knowledge of their field will ensure that the content, offerings, and resources are consistent with your needs.


Communities of Practice:

  • Workforce Development
  • Career Development
  • Government
  • Higher Education
  • Human Capital
  • Learning and Development
  • Learning Technologies
  • Sales Enablement
  • Senior Leaders and Executives
  • Global HRD


  • Tuesday, October 16, 2012

    ASTD TechKnowledge® 2013 | San Jose, California

    In San Jose, California, January 30 - February 1, 2013, ASTD will welcome more than 1,200 people who focus their daily attention on the design and delivery, management and strategy of technology and learning to the 2013 TechKnowledge® Conference and Exposition. Attendees will come together alongside 70 exhibitors in the learning technology space to learn, network, and move people forward through the application of learning and technology.

    ASTD TechKnowledge®
    Registration Details
    For Exhibitors