Organizational Behavior (OB) is about people in organizations and it covers a wide spectrum of human conduct. Because everyone is part of an organization while in the workplace (and everyplace else), it is incumbent on us to explore the roots of our understanding and know-how of behavior in organizations.
http://www.astd.org/Publications/Blogs/Higher-Education-Blog/2013/08/Organizational-BehaviorIt-All-Starts-at-Home
What are the costs in talent, learning, innovation, and organizational results if people don’t embrace some risk and instead mitigate the fear of making mistakes? Here are some ideas to help you and your team when it comes to risk.
http://www.astd.org/Publications/Blogs/L-and-D-Blog/2013/08/5127-Attempts-Learning-to-Think-Wrong
For ASTD’s insightful 2013 research report on virtual leadership, Virtual Leadership: Going the Distance to Manage Your Teams, ASTD Research Analyst Christina Mandzuk interviewed Bart Tkaczyk, president and CEO of Energizers.
http://www.astd.org/Publications/Blogs/L-and-D-Blog/2013/07/A-Conversation-on-Virtual-Learning-Leadership-Development
Team leaders who use a mutual learning mindset view leadership as power with others and not over them. The leader looks for ways to share it, and by doing so, you don’t lose any yourself. To embrace the mindset of a mutual learning leader, actively initiate the following eight behaviors.
http://www.astd.org/Publications/Newsletters/ASTD-Links/ASTD-Links-Articles/2013/07/8-Behaviors-for-Leading-a-Smarter-Team
“How do I find stories for my presentations and training programs?”
This is the most common question I get from people who recognize the power of storytelling, but aren’t sure where to begin.
Using and teaching storytelling for over 20 years, I’ve found that there are two paths to finding and selecting stories. The first path starts with the story and then identifies how it can be used. The second path “starts with the end in mind”—the key points and take away messages—and then reverse engineers those into stories that will illustrate, explain, and/or add impact to each point and message.
In this post, I am going to talk about the first path, because it’s the easiest and the most fun. I’ll talk about the second path in a future post.
http://www.astd.org/Publications/Blogs/L-and-D-Blog/2013/06/Where-to-Find-Stories-for-Your-Presentations-and-Programs
That first meeting can be the big win or lose.
Initial training project meetings, where the training request is explored, may include the internal client, subject matter experts, instructional designers, production, and project managers. It can be a time for high-level analysis to determine how the request will proceed, but also a time when the client can feel overwhelmed. This initial meeting can be critical to the success or failure of a project.
http://www.astd.org/Publications/Blogs/L-and-D-Blog/2013/05/Dont-Lose-a-Training-Project
A recent conversation about training brought that poem to mind. Our conversation premise was: Training is either good or bad – no matter how it is served. We spend a lot of time as learning professionals, making our classroom slides prettier and converting them to e-learning in the hopes of obtaining more time to train more people. After all, we all understand the need to be more LEAN and get more done with less. At least that is what we keep hearing. But don’t mistake the real message—you need to add value to the organization.
http://www.astd.org/Publications/Blogs/L-and-D-Blog/2013/05/Good-Is-Good-and-Bad-Is-Horrid
As the use of various learning technologies becomes commonplace in training departments, a perception has been building that implies that you can force fit any content into any technology.
There are several fundamental problems with this perception:
We are looking at entire programs (i.e. project management or sales training) and attempting to force the entire program into one delivery modality.
There’s an implied assumption that all delivery modalities treat all types of content in the same way.
http://www.astd.org/Publications/Blogs/L-and-D-Blog/2013/05/Applying-Blooms-Taxonomy-to-Learning-Technologies
Someone recently raised the question as to whether living in a context of war, peace, or crisis can change the characteristics of a trainer’s duties. Nowadays in Europe and in Italy, a deep crisis is perceived, and it is generating distrust toward institutions and damaging hope for a better future as well.
http://www.astd.org/Publications/Blogs/L-and-D-Blog/2013/05/Learning-Democracy
When working on instructional design projects with subject matter experts (SMEs), there are numerous moving parts to take into consideration—for launching a project, defining roles, bringing key players into the fold, and solving common critical issues with these relationships. In his new book SMEs From the Ground Up, Chuck Hodell tackles these and other core topics for working with experts on training projects.
http://www.astd.org/Publications/Blogs/L-and-D-Blog/2013/04/Podcast-Best-Practices-for-Partnering-with-Smes