I will be offering a 4-part series of complimentary webinars focused on advice to help training and development professionals do their jobs better. Each session will offer key aspects that positively impact return on learning investments. I've found these 4 topics to be extremely popular, and my webinars on these subjects will provide practical and actionable information for more effective learning.  As a long-time professional in the design, delivery and evaluation of corporate training programs, my webinars are based on my extensive experience and best practices. Each presentation will last about 45 minutes with time at the end for Q & A.

Introducing Learning Bursts: A Different Way to Deliver Training

Thursday, April 5th, 2012  2:00-3:00pm EST

Predictive Evaluation: Ensuring Training Delivers Business and Organizational Results

Thursday, April 19th, 2012  2:00-3:00pm EST

Crafting Enterprise Learning Plans

Thursday, May 3rd, 2012  2:00-3:00pm EST

Training Transfer: the Secret Sauce for Making it Stick

Thursday, May 17th, 2012  2:00-3:00pm EST

Step 1: Determine if content is appropriate for a Learning Burst

Consider what skills you are training, and how you want your employees to use those skills in their jobs.  Answer the questions below and decide if you have a Learning Burst candidate.

• How many employees need to be trained? How quickly?  Learning Burst work well with larger number of employees so that the savings are realized.  However, I have done sessions with 5-10 people and it works well.
• What is the geographic distribution of the participants? Learning Bursts work well when the participants are spread over many geographic areas.
• Can Learning Bursts be used in conjunction with the face-to-face training you currently use? This method works very well to provide participants with foundational knowledge of concepts - this reduces face-to-face time or allows more time for application practice.
• Is the culture ready to make Learning Bursts a success? If your culture already is or is ready to use alternate forms of training then Learning Bursts have a chance of success.  If not, you may not want to use Learning Bursts.
• Can the content be broken in small independent pieces?  Each Learning Burst has a target length of 20 minutes (listening to the audio and completing the workbook).  This lends itself to each burst being a single topic or concept.  If your training content can be broken down into small, single topic segments, then it is a good Learning Burst course.

Step 2: Conduct Learning Burst Needs Assessment

Learning Burst needs assessment is similar to the ones we have all done.  I view needs assessment as a data-driven process. The data you collect, analyze, and interpret provides you with the idea of the performance needed from trained employees. Data can come from interviews, surveys, observations, focus groups, product samples, and a wealth of other sources. In general, it's a good idea to have data from multiple sources, making "triangulation" possible and avoiding sampling errors.

In my needs assessment, I want to know the following:

• What business problems or challenges exist for which Learning Burst is a potential solution?
• What functional areas within the organization does each issue impact?
• What value would be realized if the issue was eliminated?
• Is the management/executive team of your organization aware of and do they recognize each issue?
• Has a timeframe been established for addressing each issue?
• Which issues are "high priority" versus "medium" or "low?" Why?
• What is the current employee performance associated with the issue?  What should it be?  Is the gap due to knowledge or skill?
• How is a Learning Burst solution tied/aligned with the company strategy/annual operating plan? 
• Which existing classroom solutions could Learning Bursts replace?
• Who are the decision makers in terms of selecting and approving a Learning Burst solution?
• Who will be involved in implementing any proposed solutions?
• How will the success of the Learning Burst initiative be measured?

• Reviews their Good Company Assessment results
• Determines where improving results will aid in achieving their strategic goals
• Creates short and long-term action plans to become a Good Company that are tightly aligned with strategic plans and annual operating plans