Paradigm Learning Blog: Paradigm Learning Community

Leading In Tough Economic Times: 10 Steps For Managers

Fri, 19 Sep 2008 07:53:31 GMT

Listening to the media dissection of the most recent Wall Street meltdown, we hear a lot about poor leadership – bad decisions, greedy CEOs, “head in the sand” mentality and the list goes on. No doubt, these “leaders” should be held accountable ...

Educating Senior Management About Business Games

Tue, 09 Sep 2008 06:05:27 GMT

In the early 90’s, when we first started our business, it happened a lot. I would hear “We don’t play games here at XYZ Company…we’re serious about our business”. Now, fast forward to 2008. Although the use of games and other discovery ...

What Talent Management Is … and Isn't

Fri, 22 Aug 2008 08:01:54 GMT

In the July issue of T&D Magazine, I read about an interesting online survey. Recently, more than 1,000 managers and senior leaders were surveyed by Right Management, a well-respected HR consulting firm. The findings indicated that 30 ...

Where Does Business Acumen Fit Into The Leadership Skill Set of Today’s Managers?

Thu, 17 Jul 2008 07:46:02 GMT

In an article titled “Is Business Acumen a Substitute for Leadership?” on www.bestmanagementarticles.com, Bob Selden writes about how organizations are assessing which are more important leadership skills—management or business skills. He states ...

HR Professionals Often Lack a Deep Understanding of Business and Financial Issues

Wed, 16 Jul 2008 10:30:03 GMT

I just read a blog post called "Maximize Possibility" on the Rainmaker Group’s blog. It's about the importance of HR professionals acquiring higher levels of business acumen if they want to be successful at leading human resource functions in ...

A New Kind of Work Environment for a New Kind of Generation

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 05:51:14 GMT

In the latest online version of CLO magazine, I read an article entitled, A New Kind of Work Environment for a New Kind of Generation. It deals with training Generation Y'ers and I found one of the quotes very interesting. Their level of ...

Spice Up Your Training Session Introductions with Discovery Learning

Tue, 01 Jul 2008 11:53:32 GMT

You have the right content for the right audience, but do you have the right approach? Your learners’ experience during your training sessions is just as important as the content, since learners won’t learn unless they are fully engaged and ...

Winning Sales Through Business Acumen, Volume I of III

Wed, 14 May 2008 12:16:32 GMT

I recently attended a conference in Las Vegas and had the opportunity to speak with the publisher of Selling Power magazine, Gerhard Gschwandter, who interviewed me for three video segments for his magazine's subscribers. We discussed the critical ...

Winning Sales Through Business Acumen, Volume II of III

Wed, 14 May 2008 09:18:27 GMT

In this second installment of video interviews, Gerhard Gschwandter, publisher of Selling Power magazine, and I discuss how important it is to engage employees when educating them in typically dry subjects, such as financial literacy or business ...

Winning Sales Through Business Acumen, Volume III of III

Wed, 14 May 2008 09:07:14 GMT

Join me for the final video interview recorded at the recent Selling Power conference in Las Vegas. Gerhard Gschwandter, publisher of Selling Power magazine, and I discuss the importance of business acumen for sales professionals. Salespeople are ...

Paradigm Learning Cofounders Win Top Honors as ISA Thought Leaders

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 10:32:49 GMT

I recently attended the ISA (The Association of Learning Providers) conference, where I was overwhelmed with pride during the awards ceremony when Paradigm Learning’s co-founders were honored as innovative thought leaders in the learning community. ...

Quality of Sales VS Quantity of Sales

Mon, 14 Apr 2008 08:24:15 GMT

I recently read a blog post called Measuring Quality of Sales, Not Just Quantity, by Jessica Stillman on http://www.bnet.com/ with some very insightful observations about Bed Bath & Beyond’s second quarter earnings report. In her ...

Congratulations on Your New Job! Now What?

Fri, 28 Mar 2008 12:28:42 GMT

Over the years, I've hired many people at many different organizational levels -- for other companies and my own --and have watched these people suceed or fail -- usually fairly quickly. One conclusion I've reached is that during the first 60-90 ...

Training 135,000 Starbuck Employees in Three Hours

Thu, 28 Feb 2008 12:51:41 GMT

If you haven't been tracking what Starbucks did on February 26, 2008 to train 135,000 employees in U.S. company-operated stores during a three-hour shutdown, here's Elliott Masie's eight-minute video. In it, he interviews a Starbucks' manager in ...

When the economy is in turmoil ... employees need to "get it."

Thu, 28 Feb 2008 06:55:27 GMT

A recent post on the T&D magazine blog raises the topic of The Value of Learning. It states that the U.S. economy has become the chief concern of Americans, overtaking the Iraq war. It also says that the strategic value of learning is ...

Green To Gold

Mon, 25 Feb 2008 13:04:08 GMT

Green to Gold, by Daniel C. Esty and Andrew S. Winston. It covers how smart companies use environmental strategies to innovate, create value, and try to build a competitive advantage. International Paper has a very strong ...

When Classroom Training Is the Best Option

Thu, 14 Feb 2008 11:24:12 GMT

When Classroom Training Is the Best Option I was interviewed today by a reporter from one of our industry publications and was asked about classroom training in today's e-world. Will it always be important? How has it changed? How will it change ...

The Importance of Business Acumen Training for Managers and Employees - White Paper

Wed, 30 Jan 2008 11:49:25 GMT

The Importance of Business Acumen Training for Managers and Employees Organizations today need managers and employees who can contribute to financial success. That’s why many of them are offering financial literacy training. ...

Classroom 2.0: The Classroom of the Future

Fri, 25 Jan 2008 07:39:25 GMT

I was reading Elliott Masie's blog yesterday and came across a post about the classroom of the future. Classroom learning issues, Elliot says, might be getting less attention than deserved these days amid all of the talk about e-Learning, Web 2.0, ...

The Big Question - 2008 Learning Trends

Mon, 21 Jan 2008 08:25:13 GMT

The Learning Circuits Blog Asked: The Big Question for January is: What are your Predictions for Learning in 2008? I see two important learning trends as we head into 2008. First, there is a growing need for financial literacy ...

Improving Corporate Training Results with Discovery Learning Methodology - White Paper

Mon, 21 Jan 2008 06:53:07 GMT

Improving Corporate Training Results with Discovery Learning Methodology. Corporate learning professionals can’t afford to waste time or money on training programs that don’t produce results. Discovery learning is a ...

Beyond Talent Development:Managers as Talent Leaders - White Paper

Tue, 15 Jan 2008 12:12:15 GMT

Beyond Talent Development: Managers as Talent Leaders Organizations must make talent management a top priority to remain competitive in today's marketplace. It makes all the difference in attracting, retaining and transitioning ...

Why Business Acumen Wins More Sales - White Paper

Tue, 15 Jan 2008 10:58:59 GMT

Why Business Acumen Wins More Sales The traditional role of the sales professional is changing. Today’s customers want sales reps to be more than order-takers; they expect trusted advisors who can work alongside them to improve their business. ...

Study Finds Significant "Engagement Gap" Among Global Workforce

Thu, 06 Dec 2007 13:58:11 GMT

I don’t get it! I Read this article called, Study Finds Significant “Engagement Gap” Among Global Workers on www.clo.com and for the life of me can’t figure out why there is not more done about this engagement gap. It’s not ...

Why Traditional Corporate Training Is Not Working

Wed, 05 Dec 2007 09:25:05 GMT

I was following a “corporate training” link the other day that eventually dumped me on a YouTube interview with Jim Clemmer the author of Growing the Distance. Jim Clemmer is a leading consultant and author on improving personal, team and ...

Organizational Change: It's Face-to-Face with Your Employees

Thu, 29 Nov 2007 12:36:57 GMT

In a recent article in Spirit, Southwests in-flight magazine, I read about Jim Schroer, CEO of Carlson Marketing. In the article, Schroer says that to improve your company or attract new customers you need to include people as part of the agenda. ...

How Do You Get People To Show Up For Training?

Fri, 16 Nov 2007 09:13:21 GMT

I found this article on Workforce.com and thought that our clients and facilitators would benefit from it. It's some basic things you can do to improve how many people attend your training events. I will follow this post with more ...

Delivering Strategic Messages to Employees

Wed, 14 Nov 2007 13:19:34 GMT

I'm fortunate as President of Paradigm Learning to spend quite a bit of time with our clients, our design consultants and other industry experts. I'd like to use this space to regularly share with you our thoughts and ideas about training – ...

What do you mean by “humor,” in training anyway?

Fri, 02 Nov 2007 10:28:31 GMT

What do you mean by “humor,” in training anyway? There is a lot of humor that is injected into Neon Buzz®: Lighting Up Organizational Performance. The characters "played" by the facilitator are extreme stereotypes. This alone will make people ...

Discovery Maps...Making them Fun and Relevant

Tue, 30 Oct 2007 14:46:57 GMT

Discovery Maps Made Easy! Many factors contribute to the successful implementation of a Discovery Map® session. While the Discovery Map contains the “message,” the attitude of the “messenger” (leader) plays a huge ...

Limiting Outside Distractions

Sat, 29 Sep 2007 13:04:14 GMT

In a previous blog entry, Mark Queen talked about managing the learning environment. As a Paradigm facilitator, I conduct discovery learning sessions and train clients to be facilitators all over the world. I have been doing this for more than 15 ...

Book Review - Leading at the Edge

Sat, 29 Sep 2007 12:58:52 GMT

A few years ago, when I was first in a leadership position, I utilized a book called Leading at the Edge, by Dennis N. Perkins, Margaret P. Holtman, Catherine McCarthy and Paul R. Kessler, with a team of 12 employees operating in regional offices ...

Trust the Discovery Learning Process

Fri, 14 Sep 2007 08:30:22 GMT

These basic facilitating steps may be “old news” to many of our long-term Paradigm Facilitators, but perhaps they may be new to you. Either way, take a few minutes and glance through these – they make great re-freshers or even eye-openers. ...

Business Acumen: Training Your Employees to Focus on the Big Picture

Thu, 06 Sep 2007 13:47:33 GMT

Business Acumen: Training Your Employees to Focus on the Big Picture Presented by Training Magazine Experts at Halliburton, McKesson and Hyundai Motor America explain why it is important to educate your staff on the big financial picture so ...

Training ... It's All in the "Mind"

Thu, 06 Sep 2007 11:43:57 GMT

About a year ago, I had the chance to hear Dan Pink speak about the concepts in his book, A Whole New Mind. ISA: The Association of Learning Providers had invited him to share these concepts and, more specifically, the implications for learning ...

Our Iceberg Is Melting, John Kotter and Holger Rathgeber

Tue, 04 Sep 2007 07:22:24 GMT

Our Iceberg Is Melting John Kotter and Holger Rathgeber This charming story about a penguin colony in Antarctica illustrates key truths about how to deal with the issue of change: handle the challenge well and you can prosper greatly; ...

Small Giants: Companies That Choose to Be Great Instead of Big, Bo Burlingham

Mon, 03 Sep 2007 13:36:28 GMT

Small Giants: Companies That Choose to Be Great Instead of Big Bo Burlingham In Small Giants, veteran journalist Bo Burlingham takes us deep inside 14 remarkable privately held companies, in widely varying industries across the country, ...

The Great Game of Business, Jack Stack

Mon, 03 Sep 2007 07:41:23 GMT

The Great Game of Business Jack Stack This is a great book, particularly for business owners and leaders. Jack Stack shows how and why getting all employees to think and act like owners gives a company an incredible advantage against its ...

Transforming Managers into Talent Leaders

Sun, 02 Sep 2007 13:38:37 GMT

Transforming Managers into Talent Leaders Presented by Human Capital Institute Training executives from Southwest Airlines, as well as the cofounder of Paradigm Learning, discuss the important skill sets and behaviors that managers must exhibit ...

Favorite Websites and Blogs

Sat, 01 Sep 2007 13:54:53 GMT

Learning Trends by Elliott Maisse Blog Discovery learning from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Training & Development Magazine CLO Magazine Workforce Management ...