Meet the Blog’s Host
Jack Shaw is a communicator who does training and has been in the trenches as well as in management and development areas. His priority is how to communicate credibily in the workplace. [Read more ...]Evaluations During Training
Unlocking Creative Potential – A Neuroscience Approach, Part III
Sandy Cormack, a personal and organizational consultant, continues with his installments of Unlocking Creative Potential. He uses a neuroscience-based approach to team building, leadership development, creativity and innovation, change management, and business strategy development. As my regular readers know, I am a big fan of looking at various ways learning takes place, when and how training can [...]
On Evaluating Standardized Tests
I just read an article from the Washington Post that disturbed me: When An Adult Took A Standardized Test Forced on Kids. It was written by Marion Brady and she talks about an educated adult friend of hers who took the 10th grade standardized tests. I wouldn’t be writing this post if her friend validated [...]
5 Ways to Assess Training Results
It is relatively easy to test information learned in a classroom or from a book. But can you accurately assess if that knowledge can and will be applied in a practical sense? While information can be remembered in the short term, its not nearly so simple to determine its application to the real world and [...]
A Recipe for Training and Coaching Success
Based on a comment by Barbara Kite, an acting and public speaking coach (and a respected colleague), I am encouraged to write an article on the importance of practice. She has been very influential in how I look at acting, coaching, and, of course, training. Her views, like mine, come from a link between acting and [...]
The Training Needs Assessment Disconnect
After 20 minutes, I nearly finished a 25-page online needs assessment for my organization before I clicked the last page and submitted it–disgusted that I had wasted my time. The survey asked me what I needed to do my job. It asked me if what was offered did the job. Is there some other form [...]
Power of Gazing in Training, Love and Other Matters
I am well advised of the power of gazing in everyday matters. One of my cats uses gazing to communicate its undying love for me. Seriously. She gazes intently, staring and then blinks a few times; if you’ve studied animal behavior, you know it means she loves me–with the glint in her misty blue eyes. [...]
Why Isn’t All Training Like Training for Your Black Belt?
We call it professional development training. Here’s a little different take. I call it, The Black Belt Art of Training. My middle school children have been taking the same kind of training for years. My kids take Tang So Do–a little known professional development tract among most trainers, I think. But do tell me if I [...]
Trainers: Between the Rock and the Hard Place
Training can be misinterpreted by managers. It can be looked upon erroneously as the solution for a host of business productivity problems, and time or credit given reluctantly for attendance. Some managers see training as a way of moving forward. Some see cross training employees and enhancing professional skills of value only in times of [...]
Training Brainstorm: Evaluating Trainers
Piggybacking on two of my latest blogs– Who Needs Training: Gets to Decide and Was the Guy Who Won the Audition Better Than You, I’m going to take a few minutes to brainstorm how we evaluate trainers and what it can mean. Obviously this is not going to be an in depth study, but I [...]
Training Assessments: Personality Counts
Personality theory and tests are useful also for management, recruitment, selection, training and teaching, on which point see also the learning styles theories on other pages such as Kolb’s learning styles, Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences, and the VAK learning styles model. — Personality Theories, Types and Tests at www.businessballs.com Believe it or not personality really does [...]
