Training Industry Quarterly - Fall 2011 - (Page 3)

FROM WHERE I SIT | DOUG HARWARD Volume 4 Issue 4 Fall 2011 www.trainingindustry.com/TIQ BACK TO THE BASICS Publisher Training Industry, Inc. 401 Harrison Oaks Blvd., Suite 300 | Cary, NC 27513 (919) 653-4990 CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER Doug Harward dharward@trainingindustry.com EDITOR IN CHIEF Ken Taylor ktaylor@trainingindustry.com EDITORIAL DIRECTOR Tim Sosbe tsosbe@trainingindustry.com ASSOCIATE EDITOR Michelle Eggleston meggleston@trainingindustry.com ADVERTISING DIRECTOR Neal Gagnon ngagnon@trainingindustry.com CONTRIBUTING AUTHORS editor@trainingindustry.com Don Berbary Billy Biggs Lisa Bodell Mark Bower Richard Chappell Wendy Combs Bettina Davis Lance Dublin Michelle Eggleston Doug Harward Charles Jennings Karl M. Kapp Kevin Oakes Tony O’Driscoll Kim Peretti Tim Sosbe L ike many leaders of training organizations, I’m always looking for ways to improve the impact my organization has on a company’s performance. Whether it’s a new technology, a better process, more talent, better suppliers or simply figuring ways to do the same things better, focusing on improvement is always a good thing. Two things I’ve learned is that focusing on improvement for its own sake is not good enough and that only using metrics from past performance is like driving a car by looking in the rear-view mirror. Improvement comes by focusing on the fundamentals of the business and knowing the right questions to ask. It’s true that talking to our clients is the best way to learn what they need, but if you ask the wrong questions, then you may get answers that are misleading, or otherwise not very helpful. For example, asking a client what they need from the learning organization is a fairly straightforward question. But, people sometimes don’t know what they don’t know. Therefore, a better question is, “How do you know what your organization needs from the learning organization?” What do you need, and how do you know what you need are two fundamentally different questions. Awareness of how you know the answer to the question helps you understand the need, as well as to understand if we are doing the right things to meet the need. So, here are nine fundamental questions all learning leaders should ask of themselves, the organizations and/or clients they support and their executives: • How do you know what your business needs regarding training? • How do you know who needs what training? • How do you know if your organization is providing the right training to meet those needs? • How do you know if you have the right talent and resources to get the training done? • How do you know who should be doing the work that you need done? • How do you know if you are using the right training partners? (For 10 more questions to help you make this determination, see the sidebar article for our Tactics feature, “Essential Components for Effectively Training a Global Workforce.”) • How do you know if you are paying the right price for that partner’s services? • How do you know the training you are providing is successful? (In other words, accomplishing what you expect it to accomplish.) • How do you know how much training is enough? From where I sit, knowing the right questions to ask is much more important than finding the solution. If the questions are right, the answers are a lot easier to get to. Doug Harward is CEO of Training Industry, Inc., and a former learning leader in the high-tech industry. E-mail Doug. COVER ART: © Ambience | Dreamstime.com EDITORIAL BOARD editor@trainingindustry.com Jeneen Baret, Manager of Information Technology IT Learning Group, Cisco Systems Robert Campbell, VP of Learning, Cerner Corp. Ed Cohen, Executive Vice President, Nelson Cohen Global Consulting John Hovell, Senior Manager, Learning Architecture, Lockheed Martin Kaliym Islam, Vice President, Customer Training, Depository Trust and Clearing Corp. Barbara Jordan, Vice President, Learning, Jackson Hewitt Tax Service Karen Kocher, Chief Learning Oﬃcer, Cigna David Lamb, Vice President, Learning & Media Services, Rollins Paul Leone, Manager, Leadership Development, American Express Alan Malinchak, Chief Learning Oﬃcer, Homeland Security Solutions, Inc. Krys Moskal, Vice President, People Development, Pearson Scott Neeley, National Training Manager, Newell Rubbermaid Frank Shaﬀer, CEO, CGFNS International Irish Kennedy Smothers, President, Kennedy Smothers & Associates Kee Meng Yeo, Director, Global Learning and Development, Amway TrainingIndustry Quarterly, Fall Fall 2011Training Industry, Inc. ezine / ezine / www.trainingindustry.com/TIQ Training Industry Quarterly, 2011 / A / A Training Industry, Inc. www.trainingindustry.com/TIQ 33 http://www.trainingindustry.com/TIQ http://www.Dreamstime.com http://www.trainingindustry.com/TIQ

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Training Industry Quarterly - Fall 2011

Training Industry Quarterly - Fall 2011
From Where I Sit: Back to the Basics
Table of Contents
Ad Index
The Learning GPS
Work that Stretches: The Best Teacher
The Promise and Peril of Social Enterprise
Technical Training: How is it Different?
Companies Press 'Play' on Training Games
Redefining the 'e' in e-Learning
Essential Components for Effectively Training a Global Workforce
Five m-Learning Considerations for Your Talent Management Strategy
Instructional Design: Learning Meets Technology
Improving Training: Thinking Like a Game Developer
Casebook: Pfizer: Moving Product Sales Training Online
Why is Mobile Learning Not More Popular?
Tweet Suite
Company News
Closing Arguments: The Three T's

Training Industry Quarterly - Fall 2011