We spend a lot of time helping people succeed as trainers, meeting facilitators, and presenters. That work focuses on helping people initiate and manage the conversation that takes place in each of these settings. What we rarely focus on is the role of the people receiving the training, participating in the meeting, or listening to...
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If you’re in L&D, a leader, or a subject matter expert (SME), you probably have some responsibility for the onboarding process, and you understand why successful onboarding is so critical to business success and the company’s bottom line. Even before the great job shift (the result of The Great Resignation), onboarding was a hot topic....
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There’s something missing in the world of sales training, and your organization might be suffering the consequences. Your sales staff has learned about your products and services, they’ve learned to analyze their targets and understand their needs, and they’ve learned about negotiation. But without weaving in top-notch training that builds communication skills, your sales training...
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One of our clients, who is a senior leader in L&D, said to us recently after having had a difficult conversation with a regional manager about a botched training session, “If she can deliver training better than my staff can, then she should. If we aren’t exceptional in the classroom, we should look for different...
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A while back, I wrote a blog post about what learners really want trainers to know about their experience and expectations in a learning environment, especially when it comes to the instructor setting ground rules. We thought that since virtual learning seems to be here for the foreseeable future, we should update that post to...
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We’ve previously talked about the crisis in soft skills in corporate America—clear communication, empathic audience analysis, effective meeting skills, and the like. What we’re hearing is that even new hires who have a natural instinct for soft skills, especially those right out of college, still experience a learning curve while they tailor those skills to...
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Do you have that friend or family member who offers you a ride and then doesn’t look at a map or set their GPS app because they’re so sure they know how to get to where they’re going? They may be confident that they know where they’re headed, but unless you already trust them—a lot—you...
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In the post-pandemic world, the communication skills training we deliver takes place in both virtual and face-to-face environments. Surprisingly, as the pandemic wore on, we learned that, in some respects, virtual delivery is preferred. It’s easier to schedule and doesn’t require any travel costs. Face-to-face training still plays its role, of course, because it helps...
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Josh Bersin wrote an interesting article on LinkedIn about the mismatch between academic education and job skills. What jumped out at me was research showing that while 72% of educational institutions believe newly educated workers are ready for work, only 42% of employers think the same. That’s a pretty big disconnect, but it’s one that I’m...
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If you are a trainer or a SME who delivers training, one of your major responsibilities, and possibly one of your major challenges, is knowing how to use the conversation that takes place during training delivery to meet your learning goals. Some trainers welcome unplanned, spontaneous interaction with learners. Others prefer a more controlled Q&A...
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