By Jack Shaw on August 27, 2014
We know training is important to both organizations and employees, yet it is often seen by workers and supervisors as extra work of no real value. It interrupts the workflow. It is the immediately tangible evaluations that become most important. The effectiveness of training should matter. That’s what we tell ourselves and, yet, we hand out […]
By Jack Shaw on July 29, 2013
– It may be the Easiest Way to Relieve Stress and Frustration on the “bloody job”or even at home, but probably not the best way. Ya think? This is not a training exercise–not yet anyway, but maybe it should be. Killing ourselves would not be a bad idea as dark and foreboding as it seems […]
By Jack Shaw on April 11, 2013
Everyone who follows this blog knows that I tend to take a softer approach to training that at times may not seem as traditional or as typical of the training principles you are taught in school. I also don’t tend to weigh my page down with off-the-shelf products, although guest writers are more than welcome […]
By Jack Shaw on November 2, 2012
As a blogger, I get ideas for my blogs from pretty much anywhere. Even as a university professor, I am sometimes piqued by something said or a student assignment. In this case, it is a very basic assignment to get my English students to think about the question: Can computers grade essays? Why is this […]
By Jack Shaw on October 19, 2012
I read an article in a colleague’s newsletter that got me thinking. This may be a little back to the basics, but it is what we do and it is easy in this day of off-the-shelf training programs to let the program, especially one involving technology, take over for us. June Melvin Mickens of Executive […]
By Jack Shaw on December 30, 2011
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 […]
By Jack Shaw on December 6, 2011
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 […]
By Jack Shaw on September 28, 2011
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 […]
By Jack Shaw on May 13, 2011
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 […]
By Jack Shaw on March 17, 2011
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 […]
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 ...]