Learning and Development News and Interviews - Leadership Development

A Decade of Change - How the World's Problems Become Business Problems...

The first decade of the 21st century was one of tumultuous change, and the Gallup Management Journal was there to cover the effects of change on businesses, organizations, and leaders worldwide. The Gallup’s editors have compiled careful selections from the Journal’s first 10 years in their new offering, Decade of Change: Managing in Times of Uncertainty (Gallup Press, 2011). Read our interview with editorial director Geoffrey Brewer to learn how those events and the changes they wrought are relevant to your daily business.

A 2012 Prediction that Will Come True

What will 2012 bring? Hopefully, world peace and economic recovery. Whether that prediction comes true remains to be seen. What seems certain, however, is that lots of people will be reading and talking about David Weinberger’s newest book. Too Big to Know: Rethinking Knowledge Now That the Facts Aren’t the Facts, Experts Are Everywhere, and the Smartest Person in the Room Is the Room was released January 3 by publisher Basic Books. Read our thought-provoking interview with Weinberger.

Dinosaur? Necessary Evil? Critical Strategic Tool?

LMS systems can be a source of frustration; surveys show that satisfaction with installed systems is decidedly mixed. Read to learn the state of play in LMS systems today, and some perspectives on future trends and developments.

Games Make Training Serious Fun

One of Meister and Willyerd predictions is that games and simulations will become key delivery modes in training. Find out here how to get started.

The 2020 Workplace: Predictions for the Next Decade

Workplace 2020 author Jeanne Meister shares tips on how Learning and Development organization can prepare for the workplace of the future.

Joining Forces: Building a Great Virtual Consulting Relationship

Beth Bogan, manager of commercial learning and development for GE Healthcare Information Technology, Todd Hudson, principal of the Maverick Institute, MariAn Klein, Clarity consultant, and Rick Vossman, Clarity consultant, discuss best practices in cultivating successful virtual consulting relationships.

Guess What? We’re All Virtual

You’re thinking of doing some strategic insourcing for your next high-stakes learning and development project, but you’re not sure about virtual: Can you manage what you can’t see? Well, guess what—we’re all virtual now. Meet Karen Sobel Lojeski, author of Leading the Virtual Workforce: How Great Leaders Transform Organizations in the 21 Century. In our exclusive interview, read Lojeski’s thoughts on the virtual distance that exists between all knowledge workers, and how to bridge it with techno-dexterity and authenticity.

How Strategic Insourcing Can Benefit Your Organization

Alicia Shevetone, Director of Strategic Sales for Clarity Consultants, discusses strategic insourcing as a viable alternative to outsourcing.

Effective Ways to Onboard Training Consultants

Lori Leahy, Manager of Compliance Training for Intuit, shares her experience and expertise about how to recognize the signs that it’s time to bring in a consultant for your workplace learning and performance projects.

How Clients Can Improve Their Outsourcing Practices

Based on his experience as a client, Joe Windham, Principal Curriculum Developer at Citrix, offers these suggestions for improving outsourcing practices.

Is There Work-Life Balance?

Is the quest for work life balance an impossible, unattainable goal, a challenge or an elusive state? Senior Instructional Design Consultant, Rick V. shares his experience in the quest for work life balance.

Outsourcing vs. Insourcing

Clarity Consultants sat down with one of their senior consultants the other day to discuss outsourcing over coffee, both past and present, as well as emerging trends for the future. Here, in edited form, is that discussion.

Expertise on Demand--Strategic Insourcing

Maximize training resources and return on investment with strategic insourcing, a unique model that provides learning and development expertise on demand, tailored to your industry and culture. When needs are pressing and resources are scarce, mission-critical projects can still be successful with the skillful deployment of specialized consultants—YOU maintain control.

How Managers Identify and Develop Employee Expertise

In a world where technologies, business strategies and products seem to change on a daily basis, the need to constantly develop new areas of expertise is no longer a luxury but a requirement for survival. And helping your employees gain new areas of expertise is a central part of your job as a manager. In this article, you'll learn how to this manager identifies and develops employee expertise.

How Clarity Consultants Partners with Clients

In circumstances where an internal training department is unable to meet new curriculum project requirements, one cost-effective strategy is to outsource all or part of this function to external learning service providers. In this article, you'll learn how Clarity partners with clients in order to fulfill project requirements.

How to Keep Peace with SMEs

Subject matter experts, or SMEs, can make or break your project. How do you cultivate positive relationships with your SMEs that will produce successful projects? In this article, you'll learn the top 10 things to do in managing SME relationships.

How to Budget/Schedule Projects with Unclear Priorities

In a perfect world we would have all of the information we need to scope and plan each project we work on. More often, we are asked to sign on to projects that are not clearly defined, but need to be completed nonetheless. In this article, you'll learn how to handle projects that do not have clear budgets or deadlines.

How to Prevent/Minimize Scope Creep

Scope creep occurs when the parameters of a project unexpectedly expand. This article defines ways in which scope creep can be effectively managed.

Effective Communication with Subject Matter Experts

The subject matter expert is an important contributor to any training project. In order for your project to be a success, you need to get the information you need, when you need it. To do that it is essential that you communicate effectively with your SMEs. In this article, you'll learn communication techniques to use with SMEs.

How to Successfully Manage Your Consulting Firm

In order to reap the full benefits of a consulting firm, you will need to effectively manage them over the course of your project, from initial selection through post-project debriefing. In this article you'll learn how to leverage a consulting firm's strengths and build a strategic, long-term partnership.

Tips for Selecting a Consulting Firm

Training Consulting Firms are typically evaluated based on experience, process, differentiating competencies, and references. Learn other tips for selecting the right learning and development consulting firm in this article.

Benefits of Training Contract Learning and Development Consultants

The use of consultants is taking an ever more important role in organizations. In this article we explore how much time and money you should invest in training a consultant.

Developing and Building a Business Case to Hire L&D Consultants

Creating a business case helps CLOs demonstrate how a learning endeavor adds value to the business and ties it to the overall goals of the company. The guidelines presented here give a template that can be used to draft a business case that provides compelling justification for the use of contract L&D resources.

Pros & Cons to Using Contract Training Consultants

Reasons to consider contract L&D consultants, including why contract L&D consultants are used to complete learning and development projects and the associated benefits are presented in this article.

Differences Between a Vendor and a Partner

Successful partnerships allow you to remain agile and grow more quickly without having to take the time and expense to grow new competencies in-house. Discover how to turn vendors into successful partnerships in this article.

Best Practices for Onboarding Consultants

Consultants can be successfully integrated into organizations and immediately support your project with specialized skill sets. These steps will help you onboard consultants smoothly to ensure a successful project outcome.

Reasons to Use Consultants for Change Management

Change Management is a process of involving, informing, and preparing the organization for what will be different. In this article we explore reasons to use external consultants to spearhead change.

Reasons to Use Consultants for L&D Project Management

Project Management is about serving a customer need and creating business results to support the company’s short- and long-term objectives. In this article we explore reasons to use use external consultants to lead L&D project teams.

Why Corporations Use Certification Consultants

How can you be sure your team knows what they need to know or can do what they need to do? In this article we focus on a tried and true way to ensure knowledge and performance: Certification.

Using Consultants for Emotional Intelligence

Why do companies call in consultants who specialize in emotional intelligence? It seems that people are having more and more problems with relationship building. Emotional intelligence is a smart way to improve team relations. Read about the additional benefits in this article.

Tips for Hiring Contract Learning & Development Consultants

In today's competitive job market, it is crucial for employers to be just as prepared as candidates in the hiring process. This article provides helpful tips hiring managers can use to select the best and brightest contract learning and development consultants for their company.

Interviews and L&D Articles