MAKING THE CASE

Need some guidance on when and how to measure the impact of your leadership training initiative? If you're interested in a quick synopsis of the best industry-wide research on Leadership Training and ROI, you can't miss this webinar by Ken Blanchard and Company.  It's the latest and greatest...

https://resources.kenblanchard.com/our-latest-webinar-recording/making-the-business-case-for-leadership-training

PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT

Would practicing your sales pitch on video make you sell more? We know the power of rehearsal when it comes to doing a big presentation, acting in a play, or performing at a concert.  But what about rehearsing your lines with a customer?  At Verizon, we conducted a study that quantified the power of these video rehearsals among hundreds of retail store reps.  By adding this relatively inexpensive "practice" component, reps were able to achieve powerful business results.  In fact the return on their investment per person was 749%.

Not bad for a little role-play - right? You can read exactly how we did it in ATD's May 2017 edition of TD Magazine

BETTER LEADER...BETTER SALES

If you're looking for better results, start with your leaders. 
I recently conducted a study looking at how front-line leaders could impact their bottom-line sales numbers by doing a few things differently with their direct reports (the ones who actually sell to the customers).  By improving their leadership just a little they were able to generate over $5,000 more revenue per employee over a 3 month period.  By tracking their improved behaviors and sales against a twin control group that received no leadership training during those same months, the organization was able to achieve and boast a 113% ROI. 

You can see a summary of this Verizon case study in 2017 Human Capital Analytics Volume 2

DOES USING SOCIAL MEDIA INCREASE PRODUCTIVITY?

A few months ago at around 1:00am, I walked into my bedroom, flicked on the light switch as I usually do 4 or 5 times a night, and before I could take one more step, I had to stop abruptly in my tracks.  I couldn’t see anything - total darkness. As I stood there staring into space, I realized that all the years of faithful service I took for granted from my little ceiling light had finally ended. 

The next morning, after some quick troubleshooting, I realized it was not just a bulb problem, but something internal within the fixture. My mind jumped to 3 traditional options: “Should I go out and buy a whole new fixture?”, “Should I call an electrician and make an appointment?”, and finally “How can I find that little paper manual that came with the light so many years ago?” After I briefly pondered some of these less desirable options, I decided to think more creatively, take to social media, and turn it into a more engaging Do-It-Yourself opportunity. Succeed or fail, it has to be better than waiting around or putting it off - and maybe I’d learn something interesting along the way. 

I sat down in front of my PC, typed in a search for “how to fix a ceiling fan and light fixture” and within minutes of clicking around I found posts with questions, answers and directions addressing my specific fixture.  One even linked me to a how-to video of someone replacing the exact same switch step by step.  I cued it up, readied my mouse between play and pause and stepped up on my stool to start working. One hour later I was done.

While I always appreciated the potential value of social media as an on-the-job training tool, it wasn’t until I started playing out specific scenarios (like the one described above) that I began to fully grasp the real potential return on investment of using them in the workplace. Read more about how I measured the impact of tapping into social media and take away some ideas about how you might start measuring this important resource within your own organizations...

Training Industry Magazine Fall 2015 

TAKE YOUR IMPACT TO THE NEXT LEVEL

If you want a quick synopsis of the traditional 5 levels of evaluation and then want to really shift your measurement strategy into overdrive with Level 6, take a look at my new article in Europe's largest professional training publication - Training Journal.  I give you all the tools to start your own Level 6 and uncover the real factors back on the job that can either make or break all your training initiatives.


Read the article in the July 2015 issue of Training Journal

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT OR VACATION?

If you had to choose between 3 days of training or 3 days of vacation?  Which would you choose?  OK when you stop laughing - consider this: training and professional development (of done right) should give you higher pay and more vacation time in the future.  It's all about your return on investment! Check out this article in Training Industry Magazine where I consider the investment in professional development and present a case study at Verizon where new front-line retail leaders attended training and outperformed other leaders who had not yet attended the very same training...


Summer Issue: Training Industry Magazine

WATCH YOUR TRAINING BLOOM

Training effectiveness is all about the care and nurturing that occurs after the training experience.  As training professionals, we all knock ourselves out to create the perfect content and delivery mode, yet we do little to understand and optimize the environment employees return to - where they actually have to apply the training.  Of course planting the training right is our responsibility, but making sure it blooms is where immediate managers and business leaders need to contribute.  Read more in my article in ATD this month...




April ATD Article