Taming Turnover June 30, 2008 You probably already know rapid turnover is a bad thing; what you may not know is just how detrimental it really is.
Can Training Fix Manager Transition Troubles? June 25, 2008 You made them—and thought you trained them to be—managers, but as far they're concerned they're only responsible for their own work.
Productivity Coach's Corner: Making Changes June 20, 2008 Where have you been avoiding making changes because it's scary, too much work, or just too stressful to even think about?
Who's Still Being Stifled in the C-Suite? June 18, 2008 Despite an African-American presidential nominee, and a woman who was a serious contender, businesses still haven't embraced women and minorities in the C-Suite.
Keep Forced Ranking Out of Court June 02, 2008 Whether you love it or loathe it, forced ranking is here to stay. And trainers, the experts say, can play a crucial role in helping their organizations to deploy the system effectively, consistently, and fairly.
Avoiding Web-based Training Security Issues June 24, 2008 Many users and system administrators have configured their browsers for optimal security, but this can wreak havoc with Web-Based Training (WBT).
Off-Duty but on Your Mind March 19, 2008 It's bad enough you have to worry about them while they're under your company's roof—now your boss may want you to think about what your employees do after hours.
University 2.0 September 06, 2007 Why did Cerner Virtual University become Cerner KnowledgeWorks last year? Robert Campbell says it's more than a fancy name change. A change in philosophy and strategy dictated not only the new name, but a completely different organization and focus for Cerner's virtual corporate university.
Across the Boardroom June 02, 2008 They may be smart, seasoned executives, but board directors still can—and should—benefit from training.
California Teamin': Training Leadership Summit Wrap-Up June 02, 2008 Although the sun played least in sight for most of the Training Leadership Summit held last month, the atmosphere at San Diego's Rancho Bernardo Inn was warm and collaborative as participants connected to discuss challenges share best practices, and network.
Meetings CPR June 02, 2008 No more "Death by PowerPoint." You can have compelling meetings—if, instead of talking to your audience, you talk with participants.
In This Issue
EDITOR'S NOTE
Editor's Note: Championing Change June 02, 2008 I walk the exact same 1.5-mile route to and from the office every day, so I'm probably not a shining example of someone who embraces change. Consistency, yes; change, not so much.
STRAIGHT TALK
World View: Training's Focus on Russia June 02, 2008 Russians are hungry for development: Research shows that Russian employees consider training just as motivating as salary increases.
OPINION
Training Soapbox: Accreditation Advantage June 02, 2008 Unlike accounting programs, which are pretty much the same no matter where a student might enroll, undergraduate and graduate programs in the field of training and development vary greatly in the areas of concentration and specialization.
TRAINING TODAY
Training TechTalk June 02, 2008 Acron SimX allows rapid integration of Microsoft ESP into an HLA or DIS by providing the simulation data interface.
Who's News in Training June 02, 2008 Hawks Cay, a resort in the Florida Keys, appointed Alice Brennan, PHR, director of human resources.
Partnerships & Alliances June 02, 2008 Nokia Siemens Networks, a network communications company with 60,000 employees, implemented the SuccessFactors Performance and Talent Management suite to drive consistency across its global operations.
Mismanaged Mobility June 02, 2008 Executives are skeptical about mobility programs' effectiveness.
METRICS
THE LIST
Training How-To: Launch a Training Consultancy June 02, 2008 Many businesspeople think about launching their own training consultancy as a potential evolution in their career. If you've already made the decision to pursue this goal, here are some of the first steps to take toward possible success.
IN PRINT
Beyond Bullsh*t June 09, 2008 Straight Talk at Work (Stanford Business Books, $24.95)
Why Dogs Wag Their Tails June 02, 2008 Lessons Leaders Can Learn About Work, Joy, and Life (W Business Books, $19.95)
Deciding Who Leads May 23, 2008 How Executive Recruiters Drive, Direct, and Disrupt the Global Search for Leadership Talent (Davies-Black Publishing, $27.95)
Crucibles of Leadership May 22, 2008 How to Learn from Experience to Become a Great Leader (Harvard Business School Press, $29.95)
Senior Leadership Teams May 16, 2008 What It Takes to Makes Them Great (Harvard Business School Publishing Corporation, $29.95)
David has been an industry analyst in the enterprise software sector for 10 years and was a software marketing executive for the prior 15 years. He currently follows manufacturing software solutions for Industry Directions. From 1998 to 2005 he directed the Enterprise Applications research teams at Aberdeen Group. Before joining Aberdeen, David held executive leadership positions including: VP of Sales and Marketing at Xchange, Inc., a leader in customer relationship management; SVP of Sales and Marketing for Work Management Solutions, a developer and marketer of project and program management software for Fortune 1000 IT organizations; VP of Marketing for leading PLM vendor Parametric Technology Corporation; and VP of Alternate Channel Distribution for Computer Corporation of America.
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Starting a Lean Education
Asked on May 21 2007 11:16:18:000AM
Q
How do we sustain lean in a contract manufacturing environment? I know people are the key issue. How do we go about doing it? Please recommend some good books or videos on this topic. Thanks,
Laurence Yap, Ipoh, Perak, NA
A
You have already pretty much hit this nail on the head. You need to start from the top of your supply chain and work down. Once your own teams are educated and effectively functioning, you need to develop a strategy for disseminating/engendering a commitment to lean within the top management of your supply partners, and support those partners by sharing your own expertise in the form of key staff to act as Sensei(s). And you need to have developed lean processes that can be passed to your supply chain partners. Clearly, firms who have significant leverage with the suppliers in their supply chains are in a stronger position to effect lean in their supply base.
The discussions in the seminal books on lean by (a) Jim Womack and Daniel Jones, and (b) Jeffery Liker are still directly relevant and you should certainly start your self-education there. A more recent article by Eric Olsen and Mark Zetter offers a set of strategies to successfully implement lean across a contract manufacturing environment. They offer eight rules for companies seeking to implement lean supply chains, and I am hard-put to improve upon their advice:
1. Know what your customers value. Every company is capable of identifying a current value proposition in its marketplace. Outsourcing may bring this into better alignment with what customers want, or executives may find it damages the company's value.
2. Trade physical proximity for digital proximity. Lean manufacturers know good communication and contact with a supplier is critically important. Executives must plan for companies to increase investment in information technology and travel.
3. Outsource to lean companies. Language and culture can be huge barriers. If possible, identify companies with lean implementation programs already in place. Lean can become the common language and culture between companies. If your company is only in its infancy with respect to lean, seek out a more mature lean company from which to learn. Where possible, seek out a few of the best companies to deal with.
4. Avoid the quantity discount trap. Many otherwise lean companies seem to forget this lesson when they source in low-cost geographies. When procuring, or buying, in North America, they readily pay a premium to buy in small batches, just-in-time. If set-up or ordering costs are drivers for larger quantities, they seek to reduce them. The same applies in long distance sourcing.
5. Involve your customers in outsourcing decisions. Truly lean companies believe in transparency. Do not do or say anything that you would not want printed on the front page of the Sunday New York Times. Customers can provide a wealth of information and experience with respect to outsourcing. This also represents an excellent opportunity for companies to test theories about their value proposition.
6. Recognize risk. Every management strategy involves a degree of risk. In fact, customers pay a premium to suppliers who manage risk well. The mistake made by many companies when outsourcing is to not recognize risk as an explicit factor in the decision-making process. Lean companies identify risk in all forms of variability and work to reduce it.
7. Lean processes are easier to outsource. Understand your current processes. Invest wisely in making them lean. With fewer non-value-add activities; fewer defects, and less waste in general, management has a much clearer picture of what is being outsourced. The knowledge gained makes managing such outsourced products and processes easier.
8. Measure the right stuff. The big five lean measures still remain the same for lean outsourcing: first-time through quality; dock-to-dock cycle time, build-to-schedule on-time delivery, overall equipment effectiveness, and total cost. Translate these measures to the supply chain level to drive and monitor continuous improvement.
Whiteboard explanations of key business and technology concepts in 3 minutes or less. BNET Video captures that moment in a business meeting where someone starts drawing on the whiteboard to clarify an abstract idea or process.
Wireless Application Protocol allows you to access the internet from your cellular phone. Burton Katz of Buongiorno explains how it works and says that ...
Many people collaborate on projects via e-mail. But e-mail threads can be cumbersome, attached documents can get lost, and who has the latest version ...
Best Practices Videos bring go-to management advice to life, illustrating the Do's and Don'ts of office politics, hiring, firing, mergers and acquisitions, and all the other high-stakes management and strategic challenges business leaders face every day
Apple CEO Steve Jobs is well known for his electrifying presentations. Communications coach Carmine Gallo discusses the various techniques Jobs uses to captivate and ...
To be a successful training managers, Richard St John shared eigth secrets in three minutes!
About this talk
Why do people succeed? Is it because they’re smart? Or are they just lucky? Neither. Analyst Richard St. John condenses years of interviews into an unmissable 3-minute slideshow on the real secrets of success.
About Richard St. John
A self-described average guy who found success doing what he loved, Richard St. John spent more than a decade researching the lessons of success -- and distilling them into 8 words, 3 minutes
Patrick Awuah is a far sighted man. He sacrifices his comfortable life style in US by returning to his home country in Africa. He mentioned that the chnage of Africa is in the efort of cultivating future leaders. In the same manner, I believe the nation strength is in the effort of companies, NGO, government and schools to development leaders. As Training manger, I believe the HRD profession can play a big part in developing leaders for company growth.
"I do not have time for the community work. I am too busy for others." This is the phrase I often hear from people. The company I am with is in the same situation.
Forget about the reasons. What can you do?
If you have to spend five hours a month Extra, and you can change the community around you. Would you do that?
What can we do?
- Teach the community (school, orphange, student leaders) how to study, living skills and soft skills like team building, communication and leadership skills.
Talk to your directors. Secure time. Squeeze a bit of your time for the needy in the community. You have the power to change the world.
Men always seek for higher calling and live a life greater than themselves. The joy that derives from such a joyful sacrifice is a marvelous journey to all.
We are byilding our corporate brand through leadership development (greta place to work, less politics and people problems!) and lean manufacturing (simpler way to work). Belwo are few of the power point slide presentations on Brand and Branding from Slideshare.net
I am an Training specialist in my the training unit of my company and have been involved in eLearning initiative since 1997. I have developed elearning courses, conducted classroom training and coaching as well. Although I have been involved for sometime in training, I still consider myself a learner and learning new ways and method to deliver training.
20 years ago, if you had thought about becoming a professional gamer, your parents would have thrown you out of the door or laugh their head off. Today gaming is a serious business worth over millions and projected billions by 2011. Gaming is no longer a laughing matter but a serious industry. And why not? It is fun! My wife said she never like playing games, then I downloaded a tetris like game called Gem and next thing I know I could not get my mobile phone back from her. She was hooked!
Look at these few examples, the military using the hours simulation games to train new soldiers, flight simulators, NASA, there are world wide gaming tournaments almost as if the Olympics have been computerized- football, forget about next week when you can watch your favourite team but you can now play the game as if you were the player yourself, and the list goes on.
Gaming in learning industry- education, corporate training. That's something new... is it? Training is also another million dollar industry and people these days sitting through hours and hours of "lecture based" training- I wonder if they ever fall asleep. There are some companies I heard using games like Warcraft to strategy and communications- don't ask me how,I have't played the game yet. Simulation training people for systems are available today and it is simple to create. Software like Adobe Captivate or Macromedia Breeze or free softwares like Jing are available to capture systems simulation.
So who's laughing now? Isn't it time for you to jump in and play a game?
Initially I was doing my MBA assignment which is like due in a couple of weeks time and I came across this very interesting video which I thought was worth having a look at how we teach children and adults. Maybe it is time to rethink some training models and look at other possible ways to engage and motivate learners to learn. Take a look at the video.
Well, with the worst experienceoff my chest now I can talk about the best experience. Just really the opposite, this lecturer can talk, discuss and even joke. He opens up and seeks ideas from people, advices and also is not afraid of people, lots of people talking at the same time. He gets used to scrolling up and down, keeping with topic and all and talking to you as if you are an individual and as a group as well- which is hard to do (I know because I have done virtual classroom before).
What really is a good example is that he leaves us with the feeling that we want to get started on our assignment. Makes it fun. Makes us learn.
I am currently doing my MBA and it's mostly eLearning where I attend a 2 day course (or rather one and half days) then I am given 6 weeks of doing an assignment and every Wednesday night, I have to attend a virtual classroom session to discuss (I emphasize- discuss) about the assignment.
Past 3 weeks I have attended what I can only say is my worst experience in virtual classroom as a learner. The lecturer does not like people to interrupt his sessions, he prefers it to be under his control. When someone interrupts like "hi", he burst out and say "Keep quiet". I seriously think this lecturer although he is supposed to be very an "e-friendly" person, this guy needs a lesson in how to how to facilitate and how to create an environment to learn. What he is doing reminds me of my secondary (or high school) strict-no-nonsense-with-a-cane type of teacher that all children tremble with fear and counts down the time that the class is over.
Probably what is so disturbing is that I m not sure how many people shut off during his session except when he says OVER like you can now speak and then we all suddenly turned on and answer his question. I just watch TV and copy everything he says and then wait for his OVER signal for me to really pay attention. This to me is a turn off and turn on type of teaching which maybe applicable to children (and I don't like it anyway) but in adult learning- it is the worst but the best case to show that this is NOT to be done.
Excellent slide on creating eLearning courses. Changing the traditional snoring boring courses to creative, simple courses that everyone would like to take.
What I liked about what Karrer shared was on slide 14, the movement from eLearning 1.0 to 1.3 and eventually about 2.0. This something I was planning to enhance to but need a plan to introduce eLearning 2.0 into the company. The best part I liked was eLearning 2.0 is free and immediate- cuts a lot of process and procurement to introduce it.
To create a really good elearning course, it will have to engage the learners in a whole new way of learning. Think out of the box. Use unconventional methods- as long as they learn. Think about it, people are glued to the TV for long hours because they are so engrossed with the program. Kids are stuck to the computer games, comics, etc. We can use this same media to teach, train and learn ourselves.
Jokes, video clips, even songs can be used to teach. With elearning, it gives you the flexibility and the power of media. Wouldn't you rather be playing a game or watching a movie than being stuck in a training room with a long winded trainer who seems to go on and on?
I am not actually fond of using quiz to test whether people understand because I find it boring and usually I find people giving me the quiz questions are really ridiculous- you can close your eyes and answer the question without much thought process. It's takes a very long time to create a very good question. A good question does not give away the answer, it makes us think about the correct answer.
This is a sad day to me. Clinton lose to Obama in US Presidential Candidancy. It is reported by CNN that "The Clinton campaign said she will make the announcement at "an event in Washington, D.C.," where she will also thank her supporters."
I am confuse with the US citizen choice of thier President. They have made a big mistake in thier last two terms which cost the world so much. Now I think they are heading for another political and financial disaster.
She is my best choice of the world leader who can lead the world to restore its prosperity and peace. This hope is gone.
