Learning & Performance News
Why I Write in PowerPoint
When writing business documents (aside from emails), most people turn to word-processing software. That’s not the only option. You can do everything — outlines, drafts, revisions, and even layouts, if you’d like — in PowerPoint or similar presentation programs.
When should I use the “5-Whys” causal analysis?
The 5 why’s (also seen as “5Ys”) typically refers to the practice of asking, five times, why the failure has occurred in order to get to the root cause of the problem. This process is not to be mistaken as a formalized way of discovering difficult issues surrounding an event investigation.
Is 70:20:10 Relevant Today? Part 1
Three numbers are bothering me. They relate to 70:20:10, but those aren’t my three vexing numbers.
The first number is 10,000. If you’ve readOutliers by Malcolm Gladwell, you undoubtedly recognize this as the number of hours it takes to go from novice to expert.
Climbing a tree can improve cognitive skills, researchers say
Climbing a tree and balancing on a beam can dramatically improve cognitive skills, according to a study. The findings suggest working memory improvements can be made in just a couple of hours of these types of physical exercises.
"The individuals come with the solution. The group gives it the muscle power." (how ants do teamwork)
When groups are very small—just a couple of ants—each ant fights for a different direction and doesn't get anywhere. But if the group is too large, the ants can't navigate around obstacles. "Too many cooks spoil the broth," says Kumar, who was not involved in the research.
1 Question You Should Never Ask Senior Leaders About Training
I recently met with a client who was preparing to conduct a training needs assessment with his company’s senior leaders. Here is the crux of what he was planning to ask: What do employees need to learn?
The Seven Principles of Thinking Like a Leader
1. Keep a focus on the mission and higher intent:
Never lose sight of the mission, purpose, and results you need to achieve. Due to the complexity of their duties, leaders are often drawn toward unusual and critical events that force them in different directions. While these difficulties need to be attended to, don't lose sight of the higher intent of the organization.
SEEING LEADERSHIP DIFFERENTLY
Adding to the 18 findings in the original report, this article introduces five new topics for the first time:
- Ingredients of leadership agility
- Effects of leadership agility
- Advantages of internal leader staffing methods
- Which development methods are most effective for each level of leadership
- Impact of information-rich competency modeling approaches on leader engagement
The Science of Training and Development in Organizations: What Matters in Practice
Organizations in the United States alone spend billions on training each year. These training and development activities allow organizations to adapt, compete, excel, innovate, produce, be safe, improve service, and reach goals. Training has successfully been used to reduce errors in such high-risk settings as emergency rooms, aviation, and the military.