Analyzing complex data sets can spark change, learning, and talent management Everyone seems to be talking about big data these days. Such analytics can improve learning and profits—but only if the organization has the right people and skills.

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3. What’s the Big Deal About Big Data?
Big data analytics can improve learning and profits—but
only if the organization has the right people and skills.
BY GAIL DUTTON
On-Site vs. Off-Site Training
Carefully considering all the pluses and minuses will
secure the best ROI for the program. BY GEORGE SELI
Immersion in the Sub-Sahara
Novartis’African Leadership Program brings participants
to numerous regions to learn about and experience their
cultures and societies. BY FRANK WALTMANN
Training at Your Fingertips
There are myriad performance support tools today to
help your employees do their jobs better. The challenge is
deciding which to choose. BY MARGERY WEINSTEIN
Top 125 In-Tuition: Part 2
An analysis of the overall practices of 2013 Training
Top 125 applicants vs. applicants in the four industries
most represented in this group. BY SAUL CARLINER AND
MICHELLE SAVARD
MasTec’s Apprenticeship Mission
One of the first steps in MasTec Utility Services Group’s
learning journey was to create an apprenticeship program
for its electric utility lineworkers. BY JOHN CONGEMI
MARCH/APRIL 2014 VOLUME 51, NUMBER 2
www.trainingmag.com
FEATURES
39TRAINING 2014 WRAP-UP
Golden Opportunities
The 2014 Training Conference & Expo sparkled with
energy, positivity, and connectivity that fostered
learning, collaboration, and change.
46 Strategies for Success
2014 Training Top 125 winners provide learning
and development best practices for balanced
scorecards and business process management.
49 TRAINING TOP 10 HALL OF FAME
Outstanding Training Initiative
All Hall of Famers submitted an Outstanding
Training Initiative that was judged by each other.
Here’s a look at Microsoft Corporation’s Pitch
Perfect program.
2 Online TOC Web-only content
4 Editor’s Note Go Figure BY LORRI FREIFELD
6 Training Today News, stats, and business
intel BY LORRI FREIFELD
10 Soapbox Building a Strong Brand for Career
Success BY DAVID MCNALLY
12 Soapbox Fostering the Strategic Employee
Lifecycle BY CHAD HARRISON
14 How-To Use Focus Groups for Rapid Needs
Analysis BY ROSS TARTELL
15 World View Focus on Norway
BY DR. NEIL ORKIN
50 Best Practices Helping Trainees
Succeed Overseas BY NEAL GOODMAN
51 Learning Matters Can Big Data Deliver
Added Value? BY TONY O’DRISCOLL
52 Training Magazine Events Join the
E-Learning Revolution BY MICHAEL ALLEN
53 Trainer Talk Storm Warnings BY BOB PIKE
54 Talent Tips What Happens When You Add
Big Data to L&D? BY ROY SAUNDERSON
56 Last Word The Bulletin Board Rule
BY PETER POST
DEPARTMENTS
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4. online contents
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Searching for LMS Satisfaction
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http://www.trainingmag.com/searching-lms-satisfaction
Change Your Life Over Lunch
Realizing true happiness, fulfillment, and contentment begins with
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http://www.trainingmag.com/change-your-life-over-lunch
The Test Most Executives Fail
Too many executives overanalyze a $25,000 investment in an idea
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son with a $25,000 salary whose job is to increase revenue, as well.
http://www.trainingmag.com/test-most-executives-fail
Change Employee Habits Through Better Communication
If we don’t explain why we’re asking employees to make a change
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5. APRIL 28-30, 2014 // GAYLORD OPRYLAND // NASHVILLE, TN
DON’T MISS OUT!
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MARCUS BUCKINGHAM
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Often when companies try to reproduce what their
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people instead of freeing them to do their best work.
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MONDAY // APRIL 28
3:00 p.m.–4:15 p.m.
JOHN FOLEY
Former lead solo pilot for the famed Blue Angels flight-
demonstration squadron
The High Performance Climb
Every organization depends upon the performance of
its people and its teams. There are few examples where
this is more dramatically demonstrated than with the Blue
Angels. Foley draws upon his experience as Lead Solo of
the Blue Angels to show you how to achieve substantially
higher levels of performance. He shows how to create
buy-in and commitment for a team’s vision and goals,
leading to clarity that drives execution decisions and also
accounts for more engaged, more committed employees.
TUESDAY // APRIL 29
8:30 a.m.–9:45 a.m.
CY WAKEMAN
Best-selling Author and Business Consultant
Reality Based Rules of the Workplace:
Know What Boosts Your Value, Kills
Your Chances, and Will Make You
Happier at Work
Tough economic times have left employees feeling
dejected and undervalued, having to do the same
amount of work with less people
and resources.
WEDNESDAY // APRIL 30
8:30 a.m.–9:30 a.m
MARGARET HEFFERNAN
Entrepreneur, CEO, Columnist and Author
The High Cost of Competition: How to
Build a Collaboration Team
Having spent her career working for organizations such
as the BBC and A&E, running the trade association IPPA
as well as her own company, Heffernan is an expert on
how to get the best from people.

6. Lorri Freifeld
lorri@trainingmag.com
M
ath was never my best (or favorite) subject in school. You’d think with par-
ents in the aerospace and computer industries that I’d have a math gene
advantage, but apparently I take after my grandfather, who started out as
a copyboy for wire service UPI and worked his way up the editorial ladder. Two
decades in the workplace later, I still have not developed an affinity for numbers—
which is why I have an accountant do my taxes and a researcher
tabulate our surveys.
But that doesn’t mean I don’t have a healthy respect for the
power of numbers and those who can crunch and analyze them.
Such an ability to analyze “big data”—complex data sets that
cross functional silos—increasingly is in high demand in to-
day’s organizations. And it is reaching into Learning & Develop-
ment and Human Resources as organizations look for insights
to help catalyze change, improve access to experts, speed on-
boarding, retain talent, and measure the effectiveness of train-
ing programs. However, analytics skills appear to be in short
supply. Only 1 in 4 organizations indicated they have an ability to meet their
analytics needs, while another 17 percent plan additional hiring to do so, accord-
ing to the American Management Association’s global survey of 800 respondents
from more than 50 industries conducted by the Institute for Corporate Produc-
tivity (i4cp). The majority of respondents (47 percent) plan to invest in training
to meet their capabilities gaps, so L&D will need to step up programs in this area.
See p. 16 to find out how companies such as water engineering firm NWH Global
and Defense Acquisition University are successfully utilizing big data analytics.
Running the numbers also is key to figuring out whether to hold training
programs on-site at company offices vs. off-site at a hotel, conference center, or
college campus. Numerous factors can weigh in favor of each choice, and the
decision-maker—whether a chief learning officer, training manager, or meeting
planner—must carefully consider the pluses and minuses with the aim of maxi-
mizing the program’s return on investment. Check out p. 20 to find out the costs
and benefits to be considered and p. 24 to learn about Novartis’ off-site African
Leadership Program.
In addition to the on-site vs. off-site debate, many companies struggle with
creating a tuition reimbursement program that benefits employees but doesn’t
break the bank. In the January/February issue, we examined tuition reimburse-
ment practices utilized by 2013 Training Top 125ers. That article sparked re-
quests to look at tuition reimbursement practices by industry; see p. 32 for the
follow-up, which focuses on tuition reimbursement practices in the finance and
banking, health and medical services, real estate and insurance, and technology
industries.
Returning to my mathematical musings, there’s hope for me yet. Keynoters at
our Training 2014 Conference & Expo held February 3-5 in San Diego offered a
glimpse into our mental circuitry and how we all have the inner ability to alter/
re-channel our mental power sources for the better (see p. 39 for highlights and
photos from the event). Perhaps that can put me on the path to do the math!
editor’s note
4 | MARCH/APRIL 2014 training www.trainingmag.com
Go Figure
TRAINING EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD
Brent Bloom, VP, Organization Effectiveness and L&D,
Applied Materials
Raymond D. Green, CEO, Paradigm Learning, Inc.
Bruce I. Jones, Programming Director,
Disney Institute
Michael S. Hamilton, former Chief Learning &
Development Officer, Ernst & Young
Nancy J. Lewis, former CLO and VP, ITT
Corporation, and former VP, Learning, IBM
Ann Schulte, Director/Global Practice Leader,
Procter & Gamble
Ross Tartell, former Technical Training and
Communication Manager - North America,
GE Capital Real Estate
TRAINING TOP 10 HALL OF FAME
Cyndi Bruce, Executive Director,
KPMG Business School – U.S.
Jim Federico, Senior Director, Platforms &
Operations, Microsoft Corporation
Gordon Fuller, Global Design & Development
Leader, IBM Center for Advanced Learning
Daniel J. Goepp, Managing Director, Learning
& Development, PricewaterhouseCoopers, LLP
Vicente Gonzalez, Learning and Development,
Booz Allen Hamilton
Glenn Hughes, Senior Director, Learning &
Development, KLA-Tencor Corporation
Donald Keller, Chief Learning Officer and VP,
Global Education & Development,
SCC Soft Computer
Diana Oreck, VP, Leadership Center,
The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company
Lou Tedrick, Staff Vice President -
Workforce Development, Verizon
Annette Thompson, CLO, Farmers Insurance
Nicole Roy-Tobin, Director, Best Practices &
Innovation, Deloitte
Kevin Wilde, VP, CLO, General Mills, Inc.
2013 TOP 5
EMERGING TRAINING LEADERS
Lindsay D. Donaire, Associate Director,
Learning & Development, Coca-Cola Enterprises
Charles L.C. Ho, Manager, Quality & Staff
Wellness Training, MTR Corporation Limited
Marita Jones, Project Manager,
Training and Development for Payroll Operations,
Paychex, Inc.
Elizabeth Lynn Kinder, Senior Training Specialist,
Bankers Life and Casualty Company
Rachel Gober Klemens, Manager, Training and
Development, CHG Healthcare Services

7. Ask your Employer about your
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• Examine the assessment of needs, analysis of learning
objectives, and rapid development of instructional materials.
• Apply the theories, principles, models, tools, and
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8. IN ITS “PUTTING THE SUCCESS IN SUCCESSION” REPORT, PwC U.S. examines
how workforce challenges are having a ripple effect on corporate succession
planning. These include declining retention rates, an inability to consistent-
ly identify and develop pivotal talent, disconnected processes throughout
organizations, and a lack of reliable talent data. “While most organizations
conduct succession planning, too often it doesn’t get the full attention of the
leadership team until a crisis forces it on the agenda,” notes Sayed Sadjady,
partner in PwC’s People & Change practice.
PwC identifies the four elements of successful suc-
cession planning as:
1. Strategic alignment. High-performing organi-
zations are four times more likely than others to
explicitly align succession plans with a business
strategy. Organizations should identify roles that are
critical for the short- and long-term future and use
executive leadership team consensus meetings to
review employee talents and strengths and to plan
developmental experiences that match candidates
with the company’s overall strategy. Conversational
coaching dialogue that includes both formal and
informal elements also has been shown to drive
employee performance.
2. Integration. Succession planning processes work
optimally when they are integrated with key tal-
ent processes, including recruitment, performance,
management, leadership development, and stra-
tegic workforce planning. At a high level, leading
organizations have two critical integration points
that differentiate them from the competition:
• Goals for company succession that are
tied to overall business strategy and
drive talent management activities.
• Existing talent management processes
that are aligned directly to the succes-
sion plan.
3. Technology and automation. Effective suc-
cessionprogramsuseintegratedtechnology
that spans the entire organization to assess
performance, readiness, and potential. Sig-
nificant to these efforts is a competency
model that establishes a common language
across all talent processes.
4. Data-driven approach. Leading com-
panies apply strong data metrics when
planning for executive succession. With
these processes, organizations can define
and apply clear criteria to assess poten-
tial performance—such as assessment of
critical thinking or business acumen—and
then use this quantifiable data and metrics
to supplement gut instincts.
6 |MARCH/APRIL 2014 training www.trainingmag.com
by Lorri Freifeld
TO SUBMIT NEWS, research, or other Training Today tidbits, contact Editor-in-Chief Lorri Freifeld at lorri@trainingmag.com or 516.524.3504.
news, stats, & business intel by Lorri Freifeld
Sharpen Your Focus
If you have a goal to get more things done today, step back and reflect on the
environment you work in and ask yourself, “Is this workspace designed to help
me focus on the work I have to do?”
Every time you are distracted, the energy you
were getting from moving your project forward
is halted, and you need to start over. Too many
times, you need to gather new strength to pick
up where you left off, and you may waste valu-
able time figuring out exactly where that was.
What to Do About It
Identify one piece of work that deserves about
45 minutes of focused attention. Then, go to a
place where you can be alone for that time. It
can be a different office or conference room or
even the coffee shop. By getting away from your
desk, you will not be available for phone calls
or to check e-mail (that means stashing your
smart phone where you can’t access it!).
Let your co-workers and team members know
you will not be available during this short time,
because you will be focusing on a particular
project. Before starting a work session, think of
the people who might interrupt you and use the
time before your focus period to ask them for
anything they may need from you. You also can
mention that you will be unavailable during the
next 45 minutes because you will be focusing
on a specific piece of work you need to finish.
By Jason W. Womack, MEd, MA www.womackcompany.com
www.twitter.com/jasonwomack | Jason@WomackCompany.com
Products & Services >> Career Steer >> Tech Talk p. 8
Priming the Pipeline
Productivity Coach’s Corner

9. One question business leaders are still asking: “How are we going to get a return on our
training investment in people who don’t stay for the long haul?” The question you should be
asking: “How are we going to change our approach to training so our investment is not so
vulnerable?”
You have to train your employees. But the more you train people, the more valuable they
are, and, therefore, the more options they have in the free market for talent. In other words,
the more you train people nowadays, the more likely they are to leave…with your training
investment in hand. This frustrating reality is what I call “the training investment paradox.”
training MARCH/APRIL 2014 | 7www.trainingmag.com
>> Right Management, the talent and
career management experts within
ManpowerGroup, and Workfolio,
a leader in personal branding
Websites, established an exclusive
industry partnership to offer personal
Website technology as part of Right
Management’s Career Transition and
Outplacement services worldwide.
>> Accenture collaborated with MIT
Professional Education, the engineering,
science, and technology training arm of
the Massachusetts Institute of Technology,
to launch the Accenture Business Process
Innovation Academy, a new training and
certification program designed to help
employees gain expertise in the key
technologies that are driving today’s
business process services, including
outsourcing.
>> Skillsoft formed a multi-phase
joint development agreement with
IBM to leverage the power of big
data in enterprise learning. The goal
is to develop an enhanced adaptive
learning experience for users with
a focus on productive data-driven
learning outcomes. In other news,
Skillsoft formed a partnership with the
Jack Welch Management Institute at
Strayer University for exclusive, global
distribution of Welch Way management
development solutions.
>> eLearning Brothers and Lodestone
partnered to provide e-learning
developers with software training and
more than 20,000 e-learning assets in
one offering at the same price as training
alone. The courses incorporate e-learning
templates into the workflow for hands-
on learning and practice. Developers
have access to the files during and after
training, allowing them to jumpstart
development, deconstruct the files,
and put newly learned skills to
immediate use.
Partnerships&Alliances
The Training Investment Paradox By Bruce Tulgan
on-the-job benefits, and
most workers (almost
62%) would be willing to
take training courses dur-
ing non-work hours.
Other survey findings:
• 14% of respondents said
their employers offered
zero training in the last year.
• More than 12% reported they’d be
willing to pay their employers for ex-
tra training.
• More than 70% of workers said
they’d be willing to spend as much as
$1,000 of their own money on more
training.
NEARLY 71% OF 200 WORKERS
between the ages of 18 and
60 believe their employers
consider training to be im-
portant, but only 38% said
they received 20 or more
hours of training in the last
year, according to an online
survey by Mindflash. On the other hand,
almost 58% of participants said that
training was helping them to do their
jobs a lot better, while approximately
38% said training helped their job per-
formance “a little.” Along the same lines,
a large majority (nearly 67%) said that
more training would deliver further
What’s Training Worth?
www.rainmakerthinking.com/blog | Twitter @brucetulgan | brucet@rainmakerthinking.com
What are the answers to this paradox?
• Get people into meaningful roles as
quickly as possible after they walk
through the door. That might require
unbundling the elements of more complex
existing roles and creating new, more
narrow roles that people can learn and
assume in short order. As a person gets
up to speed on each set of tasks and
begins performing them ably, keep adding
new responsibilities, training the person
in stages for each new bundle of work.
Every new bundle of work is like a proving
ground, which enables him or her to earn
more responsibility right away.
• Make every employee a knowledge
worker. Knowledge work is not about
what you do, but how you do whatever
it is you do. If you leverage skill and
knowledge in your work to do a better
job, you are a knowledge worker.
• Train people one mission at a time. Realign
training to fit with the new fluid realities of
work. The pragmatic answer is training in
short-term stages that track directly with
adjustments in day-to-day responsibilities.
• Make more training available just in
time. People learn best when they
have a skill or knowledge gap that
is preventing them from achieving a
tangible result. That means building and
supporting easy-to-access knowledge
assets—repositories of all the knowledge
that passes through the organization.

10. to care about their employees’ ca-
reer progression, and employees
perceive they have decent career
opportunities with their current
employer. But a significant pro-
portion (44%) of employees would
rather be working for themselves
—a sense of individualism and
entrepreneurship that employers
would do well to tap into.
8 |MARCH/APRIL 2014 training www.trainingmag.com
>> LearningStone launched its new
cloud-based learning and communication
platform for professional trainers and their
trainees. It features a Course Timeline
editor containing numerous apps, a
content management feature, a survey
tool, an easy way to invite new users, and
a platform to communicate during and
after training.
>> Tooling U-SME unveiled its
Competency Framework tool. Created in
conjunction with a cross-section of experts
from manufacturing and academia, the
tool features a series of competency
models in nine manufacturing functional
areas. It comprises more than 60
defined job role competency models,
each outlining knowledge and skill
objectives for job roles in production,
technician, lead technician/technologist,
and engineer levels.
>> Customer service and sales training
solutions provider Signature Worldwide
launched a new mobile training
reinforcement system. Signature Cue
Tips provides notifications with tips to
employees’ computers, tablets, and
smart phones to reinforce training from
face-to-face classes.
>> IBM announced the software-as-
service (SaaS)-based IBM Kenexa Talent
Suite that allows chief human resources
officers (CHROs) and C-suite executives
to gain actionable insights into data
such as work experience, social
engagement, skills development, and
individual traits to identify the qualities
that make top performers successful;
streamline, modernize, and add
precision to hiring practices; increase
workforce productivity; and connect
employees in ways that have an impact
on business results.
>> Kirkpatrick Partners and
KnowledgeAdvisors launched the
Kirkpatrick New World Edition of Metrics
that Matter, which brings together the
Kirkpatrick evaluation methodology and
cloud-based analytics technology to
form an automated, end-to-end learning
and performance management system.
Products&Services
>> Brutus Partners LLC debuted
online learning environment
LessonCloud. The professionally
managed software-as-a-service
implementation of the open source
Sakai Collaboration and Learning
Environment (CLE) offers the core
Sakai teaching and learning tools
in every course, such as online
assignments, quizzes, a lesson builder,
and gradebook, as well as additional
tools.
>> VBrick Systems, Inc., a provider
of enterprise video management and
distribution solutions, introduced
VBrick Mix, a new iPad application
that brings user-generated content
capabilities to large organizations
using VBrick’s enterprise video
Webcasting platform, and on-device,
non-linear editing capabilities to
any iPad user via the App Store.
Enterprises using VBrick’s enterprise
video platform can enable any
authorized employee to use VBrick
Mix to launch a live video Webcast
to bring urgent information to a video
portal. There, employees can view the
live Webcast from desktops or mobile
devices, or from digital signage in
lobbies, meeting rooms, and large-
scale displays.
>> epic software group, inc., created
a 3-D virtual interactive drill rig for oil
and gas workers to use on desktops,
laptops, and tablets. The 3-D rig has
a learning mode in which students
are guided around the rig, followed
by a training mode in which students
are free to move around the rig to
demonstrate that they understand a
safety procedure.
PEOPLE’S ATTITUDE TOWARD “CAREERS” IS
evolving, according to a BlessingWhite
online survey of 344 U.S. employees ages
18 to 60. While not yet back to the levels
seen in a buoyant economy, a substantial
majority (72%) believe they personally
have the biggest control over their next
career move (as opposed to their manag-
er or the company they work for). Other
survey findings:
• Respondents’ expectation of next ca-
reer steps is more likely to include
a new project or a new assignment
(35%) or a move outside the com-
pany (23%) before a direct move up
the corporate ladder (13%).
• They are five times more likely to ex-
pect to quit their current job than
expect facing a layoff (84% vs. 16%).
• Three-quarters of respondents do not
credit managers with being the main
reason employees consider leaving a
company.
• In general, organizations are seen
Career Steer

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12. F
or companies smart enough—and lucky
enough—to sustain a strong brand, that
brand is a gold mine. For a great brand,
customers will drive the extra mile, pay the extra
dollar, and refuse to consider lower-priced “me
too” offers from competitors.
But what is it that commands this kind of loy-
alty? The answer is simple: Customers are loyal to
great brands because those brands deliver great
experiences. As it gets harder and harder for
companies to stand out through unique product
features or technology, strong brands consis-
tently provide distinctive, high-quality customer
interactions that low-cost competitors cannot
easily duplicate.
How do they do it? By engaging employees in a
continuous strategy to maintain high standards
across every area of the enterprise—sales, cus-
tomer service, marketing, and operations—right
down to the fork lift drivers in the warehouse.
Those employees are the ones who shape percep-
tions, by creating the experiences customers value
enough to return to the brand time after time.
As a professional, you are also in a “competi-
tive market,” competing with others who may
have qualifications similar to yours—all vying
for the recognition and rewards that come with
outstanding performance. If you interact with
your company’s customers, you are also part of
the team that is competing to deliver customer
experiences that can strengthen—or weaken—
your company’s brand and your own.
Though you may not have thought of yourself
as having a “brand,” the fact is that people have
perceptions of you based on their experiences
with you over time. As your customers, co-work-
ers, and managers interact with you, they form
impressions that together make up your person-
al and professional brand. By our actions, we are
“branded”; we can’t really avoid it. And oppor-
tunities for career growth and recognition come
to those with strong brands—the ones who have
credibility, who are trusted, and who are seen as
the “go-to” people.
So what’s your brand today? A brand is formed
on the basis of impressions over time shaped by
observations of what you do (your role) and, even
more importantly, by how you do it (your stan-
dards). Because standards are so visible to others
through actions and behaviors, they represent the
best opportunity to consciously shape percep-
tions and strengthen your professional brand.
STANDARDS. . .THE HOW OF THE WHAT
To better understand standards, think about the
people you know in your work environment,
and even whole teams of people. What are they
known for? Perhaps you can think of an indi-
vidual who has a reputation for delivering work
that is always accurate and on time. Maybe you
know someone who consistently offers unusually
creative answers to problems, while someone else
has a reputation for being exceptionally custom-
er focused and persistent in meeting customer
needs.
There might be a member of your work team
who insists on getting to the root of a problem
and is never satisfied with an easy fix or the “good
enough” answer.
Terms such as “accurate,” “responsive,” “fo-
cused on the customer,” “prompt,” and “reliable”
describe the standards that play a critical role
in defining the quality of experiences people
expect from their interactions with others. Stan-
dards represent the means of making a unique
impression that is exclusive to you. They are an
important key to the “competitive advantage” of
your brand.
To examine your current brand and look for
opportunities to strengthen it, take a closer look
at your standards.
SOLIDIFYING YOUR STANDARDS
Discovering the standards you are known for—
and those you want to be known for—involves
holding up a useful, but not always flattering,
mirror. The process is to see yourself as others see
you, and to ask yourself some critical questions
soapbox
10 | MARCH/APRIL 2014 training www.trainingmag.com
Building a Strong Brand
for Career SuccessThree questions to see if your standards make you stand
out from the crowd. BY DAVID MCNALLY, CPAE
David McNally,
CPAE, is Chief
Encouragement
Officer of TransForm
Corporation and
a member of the
Speakers Hall of
Fame. McNally is
the author of two
best-selling books,
“Even Eagles Need
a Push—Learning to
Soar in a Changing
World” and “The
Eagle’s Secret—
Success Strategies
for Thriving at Work
and in Life.” His co-
authored book, “Be
Your Own Brand,”
is used by many
business schools
throughout the world.
For information, visit
www.transformcorp.
com and www.
davidmcnally.com.

13. training MARCH/APRIL 2014 | 11www.trainingmag.com
about your current and ideal standards:
1. What am I best known for now by my peers,
manager, and internal and external customers?
What are your current standards? Are you
known for doing what you say you will do?
Is your work known for high quality? Do you
show up to help when others need you?
2. Do the current standards I’m known for rep-
resent the best quality of performance I am
capable of delivering? Are there gaps between
your “ideal” standards and the ones you dem-
onstrate now? Where are those gaps? Think
about specific tasks and responsibilities you
have and consider how you go about perform-
ing those tasks. Does the image that comes to
mind represent your own highest standards?
How do those standards stack up with what
you observe in others?
3. What could I do differently to better demon-
strate my ideal standards—and strengthen my
brand? Think about specific actions and behav-
iors that would influence others’ perceptions
of your standards, or actions that would help
you reach the standard of performance you
want. For example, if you want to be seen as a
person who listens to customers’ perspectives
and understands their needs, you might hone
your ability to ask good questions and be an
outstanding listener.
Even though you can’t control what others think,
you can guide people to perceive you as you want to
be seen, based on your day-to-day actions and will-
ingness to continually “raise the bar” on how you
do what you do—your standards.
Having high standards is not about trying to
please everyone. It is, however, about being aware
that the strength of your brand in both your
professional and personal relationships will be de-
termined by the impressions you make every day on
the people who matter and are important to you.
To the extent that your brand stands out because
of your high standards, you will find increasing op-
portunities to grow your career, while helping your
company grow its business. t
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14. soapbox
www.trainingmag.com
The key is to intertwine helping employees develop and use their unique talents
with the overall goal of making the company more successful. BY CHAD HARRISON
T
oday’s business landscape requires that
companies foster the development of
new ideas, tap into critical employee
thinking and knowledge, and enable the
synergy of teams to revolutionize their existing
business in order to establish an effective roadmap
for a strategic employee lifecycle.
Economic change also is driving an increasing need
for organizations to adjust quickly and proficiently
to dynamic market conditions. How companies and
their leaders manage change and engage their em-
ployees in the process can significantly affect their
ability to achieve strategic business objectives. While
the strategy and objectives behind change initiatives
maydifferfromoneorganizationtoanother,allcom-
panies must learn to effectively manage the change
that is necessary for growth and survival.
Some organizations are inclined to undervalue the
importance of managing change effectively through
the people (employees) who build, execute, and rec-
ognize change initiatives—inevitably undermining
their ability to achieve the goals the change initiative
was designed to produce. Effective change manage-
ment requires identifying and developing employee
behaviors, attitudes, and practices that support
change and to do so in a systemic way. If this is not
captured, it can lead to reduced productivity, de-
creased levels of trust, declines in engagement scores,
andpoortalentattraction.Thestrongcorrelationbe-
tween effective change management and high levels
of employee engagement—which affects productiv-
ity and performance—is key.
CREATING A PATHWAY FOR SUCCESS
Traditional coaching—with its annual reviews for
measuring success—often is viewed as a clichéd
afterthought. Today’s coaching follows a more col-
laborative process for performance improvement.
It creates a partnership in which the coach and the
employee engage in two-way conversations that
encourage the employee to share ideas, concerns,
and experiences that apply to his or her day-to-day
work. This type of coaching also helps employees
take ownership over their learning and create a
culture of accountability. Imagine if a football team
coach only trained the first quarter of the game; the
same is true with employee development.
At Elavon, we create an atmosphere in which em-
ployees are empowered to reach their desired level
of accomplishment. Our approach to coaching pro-
videsemployeestheopportunitytogrowandachieve
optimal performance through consistent feedback,
counseling, and mentoring. Rather than relying
solely on a review schedule, employees are afforded
a pathway for success. We view the goal of coaching
as a means to align individual development with the
business needs. We intertwine helping our employ-
ees develop and use their unique talents with the
overall goal of making the company more success-
ful. If an employee accomplished a task that helped
our business meet its goals, it, of course, would
serve as an ideal time to offer encouraging feedback
on specific details on the outcomes and tie them to
our key organizational goals. In business, coaching
can be described as a relationship in which the key
responsibility of the coach is to cultivate a deep un-
derstanding of the person being coached, and then,
based upon that understanding, modify his or her
actionstoguidetheemployeetowardattaininghisor
her greatest potential while simultaneously making a
positive impact on the company as a whole.
Hereisan exampleof howElavon initiatesourstyle
ofcoachingconversationsforperformanceandtoas-
sist in developing the employee’s strategic lifecycle.
POSITIVE REINFORCEMENT
In May 2013, Elavon partnered with Aubrey
Daniels International to aid in accelerating
the company’s business performance through
positive, practical approaches grounded in the
science of behavior and engineered to ensure
long-term sustainability.
Elavon used applied behavioral analysis to drive
the results where performance management ad-
opted a new context. The coach was able to apply
principles that justified how learning takes place
through positive reinforcement. When a behavior
is followed by some sort of reward, the behavior
Fostering the Strategic
Employee Lifecycle
Chad Harrison is vice
president of Learning
& Development, North
America, Elavon. His
15-year career as
an L&D and applied
behaviorial analysis
professional spans
industries including
retail, travel and
entertainment, and
financial services.
Harrison has provided
developmental and
executive coaching to
Fortune 500 companies
such as Dollar General
Corporation, Cendant
Corporation, Fairfield
Resorts, Wyndham
Worldwide, and the
Avis/Budget Car Rental
Group.
12 | MARCH/APRIL 2014 training

15. is more likely to be repeated. The idea was to help
our coaches or anyone who desired to increase
their performance to do so. This was done by in-
tentionally providing frequent opportunities for
that positive reinforcement.
THE RESULTS
After completing certification in the Precision
Leadership course offered by Aubrey Daniels In-
ternational, Leslie McLeroy, Elavon’s senior di-
rector for Dispute Resolution, sought to positively
affect her team’s coaching culture by using posi-
tive reinforcement. After specifically pinpointing
the desired results from each employee, Leslie
and her team decided to test the applied behavior
analysis theory with a performance activity. The
emphasis was not on a goal; the emphasis was
on what could be done to create an environment
focused on a specific behavior that positively af-
fected the results when acted out consistently. As
a result, there was a 46 percent increase in pro-
ductivity during a five-day test period, and an
increase in average group productivity from 81
percent to 119 percent.
BUILDING A PEOPLE MODEL
If an organization wants to improve employee
skills to increase morale, productivity, perfor-
mance, and engagement, it helps to understand
the uniqueness of employees’ behavior as each
has different skills, levels of understanding,
responsibilities, and objectives. Developing a
tailored approach allows employees to feel more
empowered and better able to connect what they
learn to their own personal objectives.
People do not become engaged at work merely
because they get paid a lot, or because they have
a fast computer, a nice cafeteria, or flextime. Even
inspirational leadership, on its own, might not do
the trick. Understanding employee engagement
factors can help organizations to figure out how to
better tap employees’ “discretionary effort”—i.e.,
the level of effort people could give if they wanted
to, but above and beyond the minimum required.
Engrossing employees into a productive flow re-
quires understanding the needs and priorities of
different segments of the employee population
and taking action to meet those needs. In sum, it
requires a coherent “people model.”
training MARCH/APRIL 2014 | 13www.trainingmag.com
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$10
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PLUS:Skills Gap Part 5: Rx for SuccessTuition Reimbursement Benchmarking StudyIs Your Training Investment Mix Right?
Average training salaries and payrollsincrease 4 and 9 percent, respectively,Training research shows
SALARY
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16. A
lmost all Learning and Development pro-
fessionals have experienced the demand,
“we need the training delivered yester-
day!” This has led to the development of a range
of rapid prototyping design and development
methodologies—techniques that require a strong
needs analysis in order to be successful. As Peter
Drucker wryly noted, “There is nothing quite so
useless as doing with great efficiency something
that should not be done at all.”
How can you rapidly get the necessary infor-
mation to meet critical business needs? Often the
answer is: focus groups.
WHAT IS A FOCUS GROUP?
It is a group interview “with a purpose,” which
identifies ideas, opinions, and issues. Most focus
groups consist of five to 10 participants; all are ex-
pected to contribute, in a safe and nonthreatening
environment, with a common focus on a defined
area. Like any business meeting, a focus group has
an objective, agenda, and next steps.
CREATE THE KEY QUESTIONS
The most important step is creating the questions
for the focus group interview guide. Use these
guidelines to get the unbiased and useful informa-
tion you need:
1. Make sure that the questions you create pro-
vide the information necessary for the needs
analysis and are not just “nice to know.”
2. Use the KISS principle. Keep it simple and
use language participants will understand.
Minimize jargon.
3. Create short questions that contain one idea.
Eliminate “or” and “and” in the question. This
will enable participants to discuss a single area
and will simplify data analysis.
4. Use open-ended questions that will generate
discussion and highlight differing points of
view. Avoid “leading” questions in which emo-
tionally loaded words (e.g., broken, horrible)
or socially acceptable answers can influence
responses.
CREATE THE QUESTION FLOW
Four principles govern the question sequence:
1. Start the discussion with questions that are
easy to answer and less emotional. This helps
get participants talking. For example, in a
discussion about employee engagement, you
might start with developmental opportunities
and then proceed to the quality of the relation-
ship with management.
2. Always start with a positive question when dis-
cussing operational issues or performance gaps.
This can keep participants from descending into
a gripe session and helps keep your data clean by
separating strengths and weaknesses.
3. Usea“funnel”strategytosetthestructureofthe
questions. Begin broadly and then use follow-on
questions or probes to get the necessary details.
For example, you might ask about a product or
service and then ask follow-up questions to get a
complete picture of training or structural is-
sues that affect performance.
4. Use a summary statement followed by a
“closed-end” question (e.g., “Have I summa-
rized the discussion correctly?”) to confirm
your understanding before transitioning to
the next major area to be explored.
As famous fictional detective Sherlock
Holmes noted, “The temptation to form
premature theories upon insufficient data is the
bane of our profession.” Use focus groups to give
you the information you need to be on target when
you get the call, “We need training now!” t
how-to
14 | MARCH/APRIL 2014 training www.trainingmag.com
Use Focus Groups
For Rapid Needs Analysis
Rapid prototyping design and development methodologies require a strong
needs analysis in order to be successful. Focus groups can be the answer.
BY ROSS TARTELL, PH.D.
Ross Tartell, Ph.D.,
is currently adjunct
associate professor
of Psychology and
Education at Columbia
University. Dr. Tartell
also consults in the
areas of learning
and development,
talent planning,
and organization
development. He
received his M.B.A.
in Management and
his Ph.D. in Social
Psychology from
Columbia University.
Use focus groups to give you
the information you need to be
on target when you get the call,
“We need training now!”

17. world view
Focus on NorwayPopular training programs in Norway include Six Sigma,
customer service, presentation skills, communication skills,
and leadership. BY DR. NEIL ORKIN
A
country famous for its islands, forests,
and fjords, Norway never ceases to
amaze the world, especially during the
Winter Olympics. Her graceful athletes
usually win countless gold medals based on their
great skill and connection to the land. This coun-
try has a population of approximately 5 million
and is blessed with natural resources. Your orga-
nization will benefit greatly by doing business in
this Scandinavian paradise. Building your train-
ing capacity here can benefit your company in
myriad ways.
Norway is one of the wealthiest countries in the
world. It is known for having a 100 percent literacy
rate, a corruption-free political and business envi-
ronment, and one of the highest per capita income
levels in the world. The United Nations Human
Development Index ranks Norway as No. 1 in the
world for its standard of living. Norwegians re-
ceive free health and education benefits, as well as
robust pensions. It is an egalitarian society with a
large middle class. Norway is famous for the fair-
ness and opportunities it provides all its citizens.
The current prime minister is a female, and wom-
en are well represented throughout society.
Unemployment in Norway is less than 3 percent,
and the country has benefited
from huge oil and gas reserves.
Norway has a defined savings
plan for its citizens known as the
Government Petroleum fund.
The largest producer of alumi-
num in Western Europe, Norway
maintains a global trade surplus.
Its telecommunications network
is one of the most modern in the
world, and more than 80 percent
of its citizens speak English.
Norway’s location provides access to many
markets throughout Europe, including Russia.
Although many of the area countries have expe-
rienced economic challenges, the timing is perfect
to enter these markets prior to the expected area
business growth.
Popular training programs in Norway include
Six Sigma, customer service, presentation skills,
communication skills, and leadership. Norwegians
feel comfortable with their approach to business but
arealwaysinterestedinhowsuccessfulNorthAmer-
ican companies operate and train their leaders. Your
training costs for all programs will be 15 to 20 per-
cent more than in the United States, but your return
on investment will be well worth the effort.
TRAINING TIPS
• Most, if not all, of your participants will speak
English, but avoid idioms and keep your lan-
guage as clear and straightforward as possible
as participants may not be entirely familiar with
your vocabulary and delivery. Use slides and
handouts containing the content you’ll deliver
to help reinforce your message.
• During your program, trainer-directed com-
munication is expected as participants want
to learn from the trainer.
• Norwegians tend to be reserved and strive to
avoid confrontation. If a trainee is being quiet,
becarefulnottopushhimorhertoparticipate.
• During your program, be careful not to focus on
a particular participant for praise. This could
make the participant and group uncomfortable.
If positive recognition is deserved, praise the
specific group, not the individual.
• Norwegians are comfortable working in
groups. They also like to be treated as indi-
viduals, so the proper balance between these
two approaches can be key to the success of
your program.
• Norwegians are often private, so “ice-breakers”
and questioning participants about their per-
sonal life and families is not welcomed. t
Norwegians tend to be reserved and
strive to avoid confrontation. If a
trainee is being quiet, be careful not
to push him or her to participate.
Dr. Neil Orkin is
president of Global
Training Systems. His
organization prepares
corporate professionals
for global business
success. For more
information, visit www.
globaltrainingsystems.
com.
training MARCH/APRIL 2014 | 15www.trainingmag.com

18. ig data can be daunting, but its analy-
sis is making significant differences
in organizations. By analyzing com-
plex data sets across functional silos,
organizations are gaining insights to
help catalyze change, improve access
to experts, speed onboarding, retain
talent, and identify root causes for complicated issues. It
improves the learning environment, and even the Learn-
ing & Development organization itself.
The people who drive value for an organization aren’t
necessarily those in authority on the formal organizational
charts. They often are those with depth and breadth of exper-
tise, who influence others, know how the organization really
works, and can reach beyond silos to accomplish results.
EXTRACTING VALUE
Water engineering firm MWH Global, for example, used
big data analytics to identify the company’s top col-
laborators and then deployed them as catalysts to help
consolidate activities as the company transitioned from a
Everyone seems to be
talking about big data
these days. Such analytics
can improve learning and
profits—but only if the
organization has the right
people and skills.
BY GAIL DUTTON
16 | MARCH/APRIL 2014 training www.trainingmag.com
B
Big
Big Deal
What’s the
About
Data?

19. training MARCH/APRIL 2014 | 17www.trainingmag.com

20. function-based IT structure to a shared services model. “The
company identified the top change agents and publicly recog-
nized them as role models. After six months, MWH Global
saved $25 million,” recounts Cecyl Hobbs, SVP, Business De-
velopment and Marketing, at social network analytics company
Activate Networks. By improving access to internal experts, the
company was able to overcome bottlenecks and barriers more
quickly than otherwise would have been possible and distribute
information more effectively throughout the network.
Halliburton worked with Activate Networks to improve com-
munication among its global sites when a network analysis
showed multiple clusters with few ties among them. Based on
that analysis, Halliburton began strengthening cross-platform
ties by creating mixed project teams, rotating well-connected
individuals to other platforms, and creating an electronic ex-
pertise locator. Nine months later, connections had increased 25
percent and operational productivity 10 percent, costs caused
by poor quality were slashed 66 percent, and customer dissat-
isfaction decreased 24 percent. New product revenue increased
22 percent. The improvements were attributed to the ability to
make shared decisions more efficiently and to exchange best
practices and innovations.
Other organizations use big data analysis to retain talent.
“Engagement, performance, and social connectivity are key ele-
ments of flight risks,” Hobbs points out. “Are employees sought
out for their expertise, considered critical to a project, sidelined,
or overloaded? You can look at this over time and understand
where an individual fits. Those who are becoming more isolated
and less energized may be flight risks.”
For onboarding, the extent of individuals’ networks is the key
to their success. “If a consultant isn’t well-integrated within 30
days, it’s a cause for concern.” Hobbs gives corporate execs a bit
longer. Within 60 days, he says, it should be evident whether new
executives are working closely with the necessary people and de-
partments. “If that’s not happening or if the network is lopsided,
that’s a key indicator the executive isn’t thoroughly onboarded.”
IMPROVING L&D
Defense Acquisition University (DAU) takes a
different approach, using big data analytics to
gauge the effectiveness of its learning programs.
DAU provides training for more than 151,000 ac-
tive and reserve procurement and IT personnel
throughout the U.S. military. Recognized as the
best corporate university of 2013 by the Global
Council of Corporate Universities, DAU worked
with Knowledge Advisors to integrate data from
multiple systems—including human resources,
budgeting, and accounting—with learning da-
tabases and student information. Consequently,
“we can benchmark against a decade of sur-
veys, looking at courseware and facilities, and
how individual courses affect the organization’s
performance,” says Dr. Chris Hardy, director of
StrategicPlanningandLearningAnalytics,DAU.
Hundreds of thousands of post-training
surveys on course quality and instructor effec-
tiveness are completed each year immediately
after course completion and 60 days later to as-
sess the effect of the course upon students’ job
performance and business outcomes. Key find-
ings indicate that courseware quality is more
important for younger learners—who prefer
e-learning—and for those with some graduate-
level education, than for older learners, who
prefer traditional classrooms and effective in-
structors.Instructoreffectivenesswasearmarked
for improvement because analysis revealed “a
huge relationship between instructor effective-
ness and courseware quality.” By comparing
benchmarked data, Dr. Hardy learned that DAU
instructors are more influential at DAU than at
other organizations. Guest speakers triggered
higher levels of individual learning, which were
reflected later in job impact and business results.
18 | MARCH/APRIL 2014 training www.trainingmag.com
WWWWWWWWWWWhhhhhaaaaattt’’sss tthhee Biigg Deal abouutt BBiggg DDDDaaaatttaaaaa????
DO COMPANIES HAVE BIG DATA SKILLS?
Only 1 in 4 organizations indicated they have an ability to meet their analyt-
ics needs, while another 17 percent plan additional hiring to do so, according
to the American Management Association’s global survey of 800 respondents
from more than 50 industries conducted by the Institute for Corporate Produc-
tivity (i4cp). The majority of respondents (47 percent) plan to invest in training
to meet their capabilities gaps. Human Resources and Sales are seen as
lagging in analytical skills when compared with other organizational functions.
The survey found that lack of resources and corporate culture are the biggest
impediments to an organization’s ability to leverage big data.
Does your organization have the capabilities to
meet its anticipated analytics needs?
No, we plan on mostly training current staff
to reach the needed analytics capabilities. 47%
We are able to meet all of our anticipated analytics needs. 26%
No, but we plan on mostly hiring additional analytics staff. 17%
Other 10%
Analytical Ability by Job Function
Non-Existent/ Basic Advanced/
Poor Expert
Finance 7% 35% 58%
Executive Team 11% 38% 51%
Operations 9% 42% 48%
Research and Development 23% 32% 44%
Marketing 16% 43% 41%
Sales 20% 46% 34%
Human Resources 23% 50% 27%
Factors Impeding Efforts to Build an Analytical Organization
Resources 55.4%
Culture 49.3%
Talent/Skills 30.1%
Leadership 27.2%
Data 26.4%
Technology 20.6%

21. Dr. Hardy is advancing DAU’s capabilities with a new learn-
ing analytics team that performs trends analysis across business
lines. “Looking reactively, you don’t see the trends,” he says.
“But when analyzing data for things such as graduates vs. return
rates, perceived course quality, course location, business unit
differences, etc., trends become evident. Then, their root causes
can be identified and any issues can be addressed. For example,
we used Knowledge Advisors’ Metrics that Matter software to
analyze why distance learning return rates were dropping. We
learned the government shutdown and furloughs had lowered
morale,” so students weren’t completing surveys or attending
classes.
Currently, Dr. Hardy says, “we’re connecting the system to
the student information system to link business outcomes
to training.” DAU already tracks training locations, quality,
costs, student evaluations, and applicability to the job. When
finished, the linked system will operate like a talent man-
agement system for learning, linking to knowledge-sharing
systems with features such as templates, regulations, and
just-in-time training.
LEVERAGING HIDDEN INFORMATION
Sophisticated analytics capabilities are the key
to unlocking the information buried in data that
organizations already have but either aren’t us-
ing or don’t realize they have. This approach to
big data analysis combines network science and
behavioral science to improve collaboration and
employee engagement. As Hobbs elaborates, “we
gather information to identify networks, individ-
ual influence in the community, and the effects on
the group. We’re using scalable solutions to give
both a micro and macro view of key professional
relations.” Influence isn’t necessarily a function of
authority, he points out.
Activate Networks’ Activate Social Platform for
Enterprise software solution can map networks
from millions of individuals. For example, it ag-
gregates and analyzes the metadata and header
information from e-mail traffic, including the
sender/receiverandtimestamps(butnotthecontent
of the e-mail) to identify individuals’ communica-
tion networks. “By running advanced analytics,
organizations can get qualitative insights that iden-
tify the information brokers and the information
bottlenecks,” Hobbs explains.
When identifying the information brokers, the
company “builds a profile of descriptive data, such
as location, gender, and tenure, and then layers on
behavioral information, including their network and
e-mail data, engagement, and additional skills. The
result pinpoints the real energizers who empower
people in an organization,” Hobbs says.
Understanding those relationships “drives time
to market, simplifies organizational complexity,
enhances collaboration, minimizes predictable er-
rors, and helps organizations monitor the results
of changes over time. That, in turn, can accelerate revenue
growth by shortening sales cycles, and generating warmer
leads and a seamless customer experience for internal and
external customers,” Hobbs says.
But even with advanced analytics, some data can remain un-
reachable. Physician narratives in medical records are a good
example. These narratives are critical, particularly in difficult or
chroniccases,yetrequirenaturallanguageanalyticstounlockthe
information so it can be applied to other subsets of patients. Don-
ald Farmer, VP, product manager, Qlik Technologies, calls this
“water cooler collaboration,” because it presents information in
a way that mimics how the human mind naturally absorbs data.
“A question is never just technical. Humans share through
dialogs and stories,” Farmer says. “Natural analytics is a com-
bination of technologies and experiences that builds upon
cognitive techniques and innate skills,” and, therefore, can
leverage value from those stories.
Ultimately, big data analytics will increase in value as orga-
nizations deploy them to make cross-functional connections.
These will foster insights that address the heart of issues that
affect learning and, thus, productivity and profits. And that is
a big deal. t
www.trainingmag.com training MARCH/APRIL 2014 | 19
QUICK TIPS
HR professionals have a critical role to play in creating and shaping the new
analytical workforce, notes i4cp’s report, “The Age of Big Data: A Progress
Report for Organizations and HR.” Here are some lessons learned from today’s
market leaders on how to get started, as reported by i4cp’s Cliff Stevenson:
• IDENTIFY ANALYTICAL NEEDS IN YOUR ORGANIZATION. Assess your
workforce for analytical capabilities and use that data to determine
where to focus first. Any departments that fall well below where
the acceptable level is should be dealt with first, but if all else is
equal, work on increasing the analytical abilities of top leaders either
through executive development or recruitment.
• BUILD ANALYTICAL STRENGTH. To build analytical acumen, training
should focus on using data to make better decisions rather than on
specific tools and data-crunching techniques—although those are still
important for some jobs. This type of training will help employees ap-
proach problems from a more empirical point of view. Some functions
within your organization already may have the needed skills and can
be tapped as subject matter experts to help educate others.
• PREPARE TO MANAGE THE FLOW OF BIG DATA. The hubbub regard-
ing big data is mostly about that first word: big. If organizations
are planning on making use of the enormous data sets available to
them, infrastructure must be in place beforehand. Enterprise-wide
HRIS may or may not be able to leverage the massive amounts of
data collected, so it’s important to understand what you are hoping
to find before plunging into the overwhelming current of big data.
• EMBRACE THE ANALYTICAL DECISION-MAKING MINDSET. Changing
from an instinctual, experience-based decision-making organization
to a data-driven one isn’t as simple as increasing your organization’s
analytical abilities. The very way in which problems are viewed has
to be changed, which is why it is so important to have leaders who
understand and use data-based/evidence-based decision-making.
Merely having more data accomplishes nothing if that data isn’t
used to make better, more fact-based decisions.

22. On-Site vs. Off-Site
Companies that lack a physical corporate
university, however, often face a basic
site choice for their learning programs:
Are they best held on-site at company
offices, or at an off-site venue, such as a
hotel, conference center, or college cam-
pus? Numerous factors can weigh in
favor of each choice, and the decision-
maker—whether a chief learning officer,
training manager, or meeting planner—
must carefully consider the pluses and
minuses with the aim of maximizing the
program’s return on investment (ROI).
SAVING DOLLARS AND TIME
Perhaps the most obvious advantage
to staying on-site is avoiding expenses
such as transportation, lodging, meeting
room rental, and, to some degree, food
20 | MARCH/APRIL 2014 training www.trainingmag.com
Carefully considering all the pluses
and minuses will secure the best
ROI for the program. BY GEORGE SELI
I
n the early 2000s, the Field Training department of Farmers
Universitysetouttodeveloptheideallearningexperiencefor
its agents, a project that ultimately would lead to the estab-
lishmentoftheUniversityofFarmersin2003.DaveNystrom,
LUTCF, head of Field Training - University of Farmers, says
his team “identified four key elements that must be world
class: content, facilitation, logistics, and environment.” With the
University of Farmers’ state-of-the-art, 120,000-square-foot facility
in Agoura Hills, CA, the “environment” component of the formula
is certainly in place, with full control over the classroom design and
amenities that support learning. “We know that the typical hotel,
meeting facility, or even college has some type of limitation that
would restrict us from doing it world class,” says Nystrom, citing a
need for elements such as top-quality ergonomic chairs, extensive
whiteboards, and multiple projectors.
Training

23. and beverage (F&B), not to mention the resources spent on
site searching. And this cost saving becomes more significant
as training needs increase. For example, Grapevine, TX-based
GameStop established its on-site training center two years
ago for its many sessions that have less than 50 participants.
“Prior to that, we did them off-site at the closest hotel, which
increased the budget when we started to do a lot more train-
ing,” relates Judy Anderson, CMP, senior manager, Meetings
and Travel. “We do catering here from our corporate office,
so we’re able to get reduced F&B costs. And we have our IT
department help us with the audio visual (AV) equipment
when needed, so there’s no AV costs.”
But protecting the bottom line via on-site training isn’t just
about cost avoidance. Todd Hanson, president and founder
of Appleton, WI-based Catalyst Performance Group, Inc.,
notes that in some cases it’s also about creating the percep-
tion of cost-consciousness. “In tough economic times, an
organization wants to show to employees and also exter-
nal people that it’s handling its money carefully, because it
doesn’t want to end up in the crosshairs of an antagonistic
media,” he explains.
In addition to cost avoidance, on-site training minimizes
the loss of valuable time in the office. “Think of a sales team:
If I take them off the field, every second they’re in training
and not selling, we’re losing money,” observes Steve Book-
binder, CEO and cofounder of New York, NY-based Digital
Media Training. “So sometimes they’ll do training in their
office just to keep them close; participants can leave at breaks
and go back to their desks.”
That accessibility to the office also allows participants to
quickly address any business needs that may arise. On-site
training also enables non-participating staff to make im-
promptu contributions to the training. “Having it here at the
home office means attendees will be able to meet with our
executives, who can just pop over, do a quick intro and pre-
sentation, and then go back to work,” Anderson notes.
THINK CAREFULLY
Partly due to such advantages, Bookbinder feels there is a
general trend to train on-site, but the decision to do so often
is not considered carefully enough, he adds. “In my life, I’ve
done 4,000 workshops for clients such as Moody’s, Bloom-
berg, and Discovery, and what I’ve seen is that there has
always been and continues to be too much of ‘Let’s do the
training in our own offices.’” The problem, he explains, is
that companies may not be considering the adequacy of their
facilities, the “environment” factor essential to ideal learn-
ing. So while they have reduced the investment portion of
ROI by staying on-site, they also may have reduced the return
by compromising the learning experience.
“Suppose you have a conference room with a big table in the
middle where you have a one-hour meeting with 37 people
sitting around this table. And at the end of an hour you get
up and leave,” Bookbinder says. “Compare that to a two-day
training in that same room with another 20 people around
the edges. Physically, they fit. Is it a fire hazard? Probably.
Are they comfortable? Is it an ideal learning environment?
No. But I find that when the space is tight, they’ll still tend to
do it that way.”
Hanson recently facilitated an executive council meet-
ing for a major moving and storage company that focused
on improving employee engagement. With only eight at-
tendees, the quarters were not cramped, but there were
negatives nonetheless: “The meeting started late, as execu-
tives were tied up with operational issues,” Hanson relates.
“Breaks went longer than planned due to the mingling of
meeting attendees and home office personnel. In fact, in a
couple of cases, people had to be chased down. Also, the
agenda had to be adjusted to accommodate visitors to the
home office.”
Hanson also cites several minor interruptions from head-
quarters staff during session time. “There are emergencies
within a business when people can rationalize interrupting
a meeting if it’s there on-site; off premises they’re just not
going to do it,” he says.
“At times we’ve run leadership development programs in
our training center,” notes Michael Molinaro, vice presi-
dent and CLO at New York Life Insurance Company, “and
we realize that senior leaders sometimes can be caught up
in what’s going on here day to day. Being physically in the
building, it can be difficult to mentally break from their
work. Going away [to a corporate retreat] allows participants
to both physically and mentally separate from the work envi-
ronment and understand that they’re putting that time aside
[for learning].”
Anderson echoes that concern with on-site training: “The
biggest risk is being distracted because if we have people
training MARCH/APRIL 2014 | 21www.trainingmag.com
ON-SITE BENEFITS
1. Save transportation costs, and potentially lodging, food
and beverage, and audio visual equipment
2. Save site search time
3. Maintain the public and/or internal perception of cost-
consciousness
4. Participants are better connected to business needs
5. Opportunity for impromptu participation by office staff
OFF-SITE BENEFITS
1. Potentially better facilities, amenities, and meeting
services
2. Less chance of business-related distractions and
interruptions, improving focus and control of start times
and break durations
3. More memorable setting and experience
4. Stronger implicit message to participants that the
company invests in training
5. More robust opportunities for networking and
teambuilding

24. www.trainingmag.com
On-Site vs. Off-Site Training
22 | MARCH/APRIL 2014 training
flying in from across the U.S. and we know they’re here, then
there’s often the need to go and speak with them while they’re
on-site, to get their input or feedback on something. So an-
cillary or pop-up meetings are a challenge [to maintaining
the training focus].” Indeed, according to a Hilton World-
wide survey released in November, 63 percent of respondents
(607 bookers or decision-makers for a small off-site business
meeting booked within the last year) indicated that meetings
outside of the office are more productive.
COMPANY CARING
The relative lack of distractions is one reason for the in-
creased productivity, but a certain psychological factor also
may come into play, a sense that “we’ve invested in this off-
site location, now we should make the sessions as productive
as possible.” There also may be an implicit message sent to
participants: “The company cares enough about your profes-
sional development to invest in an off-site locale.” That, in
turn, fosters engagement with the company. In fact, 67 per-
cent of respondents to the Hilton Worldwide survey said they
would book meetings outside of their normal place of work
in order to enhance their company’s image.
An off-site location can make the training that much more
“special” and memorable, not only due to the change in
environment, but also because the setting can allow for a
richer experience. “We think one reason to go off-site is the
value for participants in spending time together outside of
the classroom, networking or doing assignments together
in preparation for some other event,” says Molinaro, who
favors sites such as Mohonk Mountain Resort in Hudson
Valley, NY, or the Dolce Norwalk Hotel & Conference Cen-
ter in Stamford, CT. “We always try to take advantage of the
setting, so on one of our leadership programs at Mohonk
Mountain House, we run an activity where participants
hike up the mountain, and people have a coaching con-
versation along the way up. So they get outside and they’re
still doing that work, but it’s in an active setting, and they
value that.”
The “getaway” aspect to remote training is also appro-
priate for certain kinds of sessions; for example, where
brainstorming or creativity is involved. That tends to justify
the investment in a more insulated environment. “For our
14-month training program for high potentials, we do part
on-site and part off-site, depending on the content we’re cov-
ering,” Molinaro relates. “Content where learners are deeply
immersed around personal discovery, where they have to do
a lot of reflection or are going to be in kind of an experimental
mode, trying on new ways of working or behaviors—those can
be good times to get people in a new environment to establish a
safe space and clear their head.” t
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26. To reinforce its commitment to growing business throughout
the continent of Africa, Novartis recently launched a new em-
ployee “business school” of sorts called the Africa University.
The student base consists of leaders and managers who live and
work in the many countries of Africa.
The university’s cornerstone offering is the African Leader-
ship Program (ALP), created in partnership with the University
of Stellenbosch Business School. It is an 18-month program for
top Novartis leaders in the sub-Sahara region of the continent.
The program features a leadership- and business-focused cur-
riculum designed to build capabilities around company strategy.
Participants devise and test strategies for growing business and
increasing access to medicines in Africa. They work on shaping
health-care systems, building product portfolios, and developing
effective government partnerships.
By staging the African Leadership Program in multiple Af-
rican countries, participants are immersed in each country’s
culture. This off-site training allows them to fully experi-
ence the society, and to gain invaluable business acumen and
insight that cannot be duplicated in a conference room.
n Africa, there is an age-old learning tradition
that is still practiced today: storytelling. Villagers
learn about the values and behaviors that will
be conducive to the success of the tribe by being
together, sitting around a campfire at night, listening
to the elders of the village talk. What has been true
throughout the centuries is still true today.
IN THE ELEMENT
Most importantly, this five-module ALP program takes par-
ticipants to several African countries. Coursework requires
participants to attend action learning workshops, coaching
sessions, and lectures in the South Africa, East Africa, and
West Africa regions.
“Immersion in a different environment fosters both so-
cial learning and social responsibility,” explains Wikus Van
Vuuren, one of the co-developers of the program from the
University of Stellenbosch Business School – Executive De-
velopment. “While the key responsibility of employees is to
look after the growth of the business, it is also their respon-
sibility to participate in socially responsible projects on the
African continent. You can’t do that sitting in a conference
room. You need to go to Kenya in order to understand Kenya,
or South Africa to understand South Africa, and so on. You
need to see the environment that you will be operating in,
24 | MARCH/APRIL 2014 training www.trainingmag.com
This is the second of a three-part series of articles written exclusively for
Training magazine on business challenges and opportunities in Africa
and how Swiss-based pharmaceuticals and life sciences company
Novartis’ learning and leadership development programs are helping
address the myriad issues.
Coursework in Novartis’ five-module African Leadership Program
requires participants to attend action learning workshops,
Immersion
in the Sub-
Sahara
Training Exclusive
Novartis’ African Leadership Program
is an off-site training program that
brings participants to numerous regions
to learn about and experience their
cultures and societies.
BY FRANK WALTMANN, PH.D.
I

27. and to identify the sounds and smells of the city. By doing
so, your senses are activated, and you learn in a much more
real and tangible way.”
FIRSTHAND EXPERIENCE
Often, there is a vast chasm between the “haves” and “have-
nots” in African countries. There is extreme poverty, as well
as those who are very privileged, rich, and comfortable. As
ALP participants see and experience this, they then can
begin to deal with how they will relate to the cultural chal-
lenges and synergies that exist. Therefore, program sessions
are held in both the comfortable and challenging locales.
The reasons for this are twofold. First, the more com-
fortable locations are a nurturing place where participants
can reflect on who they are and what they will create. If
participants can lock into high aspirations in the beginning,
it will build the will for them to learn.
On the flip side, the more challenging locations give lead-
ers the ability to see how the market operates. This often is an
eye-opening experience, particularly when participants visit
hospitals and see how the markets run. “Talking about what it
is like to be without electricity and actually experiencing it gives
people a new reality, and builds empathy,” adds Africa Univer-
sity program facilitator Judy Malan.
OPENING PEOPLE UP TO LEARNING
Off-site training opens people up. By taking people out of
their natural work environment and the traditional conference
room setting, they are afforded an opportunity to stretch their
minds. In other words, a stark change in environment creates
a whole new dimension to the learning experience, which has a
positive impact on innovative thinking and learning retention.
And by being in an environment that is conducive to more
than one learning style—and stimulates multiple senses—the
student’s ability to learn improves.
Additionally, “off-site” is both a physical state and a state of
mind—which can be effectively leveraged. While off-site com-
monlyreferstobeingphysicallydistancedfromtheoffice,another
way of thinking about off-site is mental distance—that we are far
away in our minds from the day-to-day aspects of business.
NO UNNECESSARY INTERRUPTIONS
Another practical reason Novartis chose off-site training for
the African Leadership Program is because it takes people out
of the environment where they can be constantly interrupted.
When you train on-site, people’s natural tendency is to go back
to their desk or office every time there is a program break, and
quickly try to deal with one or two of their usual job duties.
This causes them to get sidetracked.
However, when people are far away from their natural habi-
tat, there is less connectivity with that habitat. Therefore, the
chance of being interrupted is vastly reduced. We have even
gone so far as to advise participants during breaks to spend the
first five minutes “technology free” in order to allow time for
the learning to sink in and reflection to take place.
EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING
Novartis has a strong learning culture that embraces the growth
of its leaders through diverse programs. Employee develop-
ment is and always has been supported at the highest levels of
the company. Because of this, today we have a mature training
and leadership development portfolio with programs held both
on-site and off-site. Some can be held anywhere, while others are
specifically designed to be experiential, such as with our African
Leadership Program. Here participants share experiences—and
stories—with everyone learning from each other, just as always
has been done throughout the rich history of Africa.
“People have a different level of engagement because of where
they are,” concludes Malan. “Ultimately, humans learn in
experiential ways much more than we often acknowledge; it is
not just a game of the mind.” t
training MARCH/APRIL 2014 | 25www.trainingmag.com
Frank Waltmann, Ph.D., is head of Corporate Learning at Novartis, a Swiss-based
pharmaceuticals and life sciences company.
coaching sessions, and lectures in the South Africa, East Africa,
and West Africa regions.

28. BLEND OF OLD AND NEW
Finding the right performance support tool often is a multiple-choice answer.
The best support is given by a range of tools, some conventional and others
centered on advanced technology. “We offer performance support in the form
of coaching, mentoring, and accountability programs, and electronic tools
to help financial representatives improve productivity and efficiency,” says
David Eurich, director of Field Training for Northwestern Mutual.
For example, as a non-technology-based performance aid, Northwest-
ern Mutual offers RACE (Recording Activity Compared to Expectations),
an accountability program in which the RACE coach spends time each day
coaching representatives on their daily habits compared with the office’s ex-
pectations for activity and productivity, for the first six months of their career.
The RACE coach provides feedback, accountability, challenge, and support,
tying daily activity to each representative’s vision or goals. The company also
offers mentoring programs that assist in achieving industry milestones. For
example, the MDRT (Million Dollar Round Table) mentoring program pro-
vides counseling, guidance, and encouragement to a new qualifying member.
This program aims to boost newer producers to an MDRT level of production
while raising veteran MDRT members to peak performance. Finally, there are
study groups that meet on a weekly and monthly basis to ensure employees
deliver the best possible service to clients.
On the technology end of Northwestern Mutual’s performance support of-
ferings are two apps that are available 24x7 via any Internet-enabled device,
includingiPadsandPCs.Thecompany’sLearningPathWebapp“organizesand
displayspractice-modelandmarket-basedtrainingprogramsinawaythatclear-
ly shows representatives exactly what they need to do to succeed,” explains Jodi
Nolte, learning strategy consultant for Northwestern Mutual. The app tracks
progress and provides direct access to courses, other training resources, and best
practice designations. “It supports Northwestern Mutual’s financial security
planning approach through comprehensive training on products, the planning
process, technology, and marketing,” Nolte says. Northwestern Mutual also has
There are myriad performance support tools
today to help your employees do their jobs
better. The challenge is deciding which to
choose. BY MARGERY WEINSTEIN
P
erformance support tools—whether traditional
in the form of mentoring and coaching or
technologically advanced and online—can be
workforcegame-changers.Whenyouremployees
find themselves stumped in the middle of a
challenging task, these tools give them a place to turn for quick,
just-in-time answers. The challenge is understanding the support
tools available today and which are right for your employees.
26 | MARCH/APRIL 2014 training
Training at Your
www.trainingmag.com

29. training MARCH/APRIL 2014 | 27
Fingertips
www.trainingmag.com

32. 30 | MARCH/APRIL 2014 training www.trainingmag.com
theTechnologyinYourPractice(TYP)tool.“It’sajobaidWebapp
that tells you what tasks are performed by whom for the sales cycle
and what technology to use when performing those tasks,” Nolte
notes.“Foreachtechnology,ittellsyouwhatthetechnologyis,why
youwouldwanttouseit,andwhen(inthesalescycle)touseit.The
toolalsoprovideslinkstotrainingpagesonthecompany’sintranet
that tell you how to use the technology.”
HOW DO YOU KNOW IF IT WORKS?
Like any training investment, the question of what the company
gets in return inevitably arises. The traditional Kirkpatrick eval-
uation steps are not always easy to apply. “I think Kirkpatrick’s
model is terrific. It has served us well and will continue to serve us
well, but it needs to be used a bit differently in this more encom-
passing paradigm of learning, including performance support,”
says Nancy J. Lewis, former chief learning officer at ITT Corpora-
tion, and before that, vice president of Learning and Leadership
Development at IBM. Performance support tools have to be
evaluated with the idea that impressive results can be produced
without the employee having mastered each step in the process of
getting the work done. “Phones have calculators in them. Know-
ing multiplication tables in your head is no longer necessary to get
to the right answer of 5x8 being 40,” says Lewis. “Nor, in a more
advanced example, is being able to figure out what your mortgage
payment would be on the house you’re thinking of buying if you
put $100,000 down. There are mortgage calculators a click away
whenever you need them, including mortgage calculators that
feature guidance on all additional closing and moving costs, etc.”
Lewis offers an additional example from the world of sales
training, noting that rather than being able to adhere strictly to
theclassicKirkpatrickevaluationmodel,abest-in-classsalessup-
port tool would have to be multifaceted. This, she says, includes
the ability to:
• Study what top-performing sellers do to bring in higher reve-
nue quicker and then clone and guide others to those activities
and thought flows that have demonstrated repeated success.
• Serve up critically relevant and highest quality resources in
real work time around a specific industry, work activity, solu-
tion, and client/market to better enable creative solutions for
paths not traveled previously.
• Reduce decision-making time, increase time to productivity,
and enhance expertise performance level.
In addition, learner feedback is an important part of the evalu-
ation process. The tool should improve employee output, but it
also should make their work lives easier. “I think an interesting
point to consider with performance support is that often the
‘learning’ becomes transparent and almost invisible with per-
formance support, and the guidance and enablement is served
up right when it’s needed and usually is not labeled ‘learning,’”
Lewis says. “Often, learners would not think of it the same way
they would think of going to a class. Performance support brings
the learning to the work instead of the worker to the learning.”
ARE OUR CUSTOMERS/CLIENTS HAPPY?
Edward Jones, which uses online job aids, performance-based
coaching, and structured-reflection exercises, takes a long view
on evaluating whether a performance support tool is a worth-
while investment. “We most frequently do pre-training and
post-training surveys, occasionally performing control-group
comparisons,” says Annette Charlton, principal responsible for
branch learning and development. “The measures of a perfor-
mance support tool are indirect, ultimately dependent on how it
impacts the client experience.”
Likewise, at Aetna Inc., customer feedback often is the ultimate
judge of whether a performance support tool has succeeded.
Manager of Learning and Performance Frank Scharibone offers
a recent example to illustrate: “The success of Aetna’s concierge
customer service model depends heavily on our successful
training of multiple segments of employees on the 14 different
products that are bundled as a seamless product to members.
Historically, building a Web-based training tool and coordinat-
ing content with 14 different areas would have required a central
area to do all development and coordinate content with the 14
areas. Delays in updating content would have been inevitable,
and at any point in time, some part of the tool would have been
‘out of date.’ Recognizing this, we designed and built Aetna’s
first wiki architecture using SharePoint capabilities, dubbed the
‘360 Tool’ for a holistic view of available content. Within this
design, each of the 14 training areas takes direct responsibility
for uploading content directly to the performance support tool.
We designed security measures and archiving capabilities to as-
sure content changes can be tracked and reactivated if needed.
The process for uploading content was designed to require mini-
mal technical expertise and is only slightly more complex than
changing a Word document.”
Feedback from customers (“members” in the case of an in-
surance company such as Aetna) let the company know it was
on the right track, says Scharibone. “Our first national account
customer was highly involved in the review of training content
developed to support the concierge service model. When the
wiki-based performance support tool initially was presented to
the customer, their feedback indicated that they not only felt the
toolmetallexpectations,theywereamazedattheinnovationand
creativity used to address this training need. The 360 Tool proved
so effective in servicing customers that it has become a require-
ment for supporting all customers under this service model.” t
QUICK TIPS
• Mix traditional, non-technological performance support with
online and other electronic solutions.
• Take advantage of mobile technology and launch a Web app
that tracks the progress of your learners and offers a portal
to additional tools.
• You may need to go beyond or tinker with the Kirkpatrick
model in evaluating the effectiveness of performance
support tools.
• Since enhanced performance support should mean enhanced
satisfaction for employees, make customer feedback part of
your evaluation of the tool’s effectiveness.
• Also consider what your learners think of the tool. It should
make their work more seamless and their work lives easier.
• If the tool proves its effectiveness, be sure to make it the
standard, or even a model for other tools.
Training at Your Fingertips