Practically Irrelevant?

What is the point of research carried out in business schools?

Management Education’s Unanswered Questions

Managers want the status of professionals, but not all managers want the constraints that go along with professions. Why? For more than 100 years, business education at the top universities has been searching for its soul. HBS professor Rakesh Khurana, author of a new book, says business school education is at a turning point.

12 Unavoidable Truths About E-Learning

In the haste to “get it out there,” organizations are ignoring some basic realities about technology and learning, as well as about today’s learners. This results in e-learning programs that are time-consuming to create, expensive to produce and deploy and don’t change behaviors in a way that “moves the needle” for business results.

So how effective are your e-learning efforts? It’s time to find out. Think … [ Read more ]

The Science of Corporate Learning

The notion of different types of learners and learning styles usually refer to “auditory,” “visual” and “verbal.” While these distinctions are valid, there is a different way to think about this: in terms of how people think about their goals.

Training: Rounding up the Usual Suspects

With literally billions of dollars spent on training, why is it not more effective in changing organizations’ practices? Why are training departments becoming today’s “usual suspects?”

Putting Learning to Work: Principles and Strategies for Improving Performance

While the full story of the next economy and beyond has yet to be written, it is clear that the winners in the future economic environment will be those companies and individuals best able to learn quickly the skills required to thrive in the emerging business climate. This report focuses on two competency areas that are believed to be critical: leadership and management competencies, and … [ Read more ]

Sink-or-Swim Attitude Strands New Managers

Training new supervisors has a positive effect on all of the supervisor’s staff and produces more results than the supervisor was able to accomplish as an individual performer. While many companies offer some sort of management training, often it’s ineffective. But by adjusting when the training is conducted, what is included and who conducts it, you can make big differences in the effectiveness of your … [ Read more ]

The Upwardly Global MBA

A survey of 100-plus executives in more than 20 countries identifies the knowledge, skills, and attributes young leaders need to succeed.

Can We Really Train Leadership?

Leadership programs offer everything from white-water rafting to encounter groups. But do they really train leaders? Yes, if they take a multi-tiered approach and recognize that it takes skill and time to succeed.

Editor’s Note: this is an excellent article – a bit long, but well worth the read…

The MBA Menace

Management theorist and critic Henry Mintzberg has a few choice words for all you newly minted MBAs: The way you were taught management is all wrong.

The Innovation Incubator: Technology Transfer at Stanford University

The successful transfer of new technologies from the research laboratory to the commercial sector has many benefits: the creation of wealth, new jobs and new solutions to society’s problems. For nearly three decades, Stanford University has been a leader in technology transfer, fostering the growth of northern California’s Silicon Valley and the biotechnology industry and providing a model for other research and educational institutions across … [ Read more ]

Learning Styles

While the notion that people learn differently is hardly new, it has been David A. Kolb, Professor of Organisational Behaviour at the Weatherhead School of Management, who has encapsulated the idea in recent years. Initially on his own and then working with Roger Fry, Kolb put forward a cycle of learning. This article, which serves as an introduction to theworkingmanager.com website offers a nice overview … [ Read more ]

Best Practices and Case Studies: Be Very Afraid

Often, it’s not clear what it means for some practice to be “best.” Best at what? And by what standard?

What works well for one of your competitors or another company doesn’t necessarily mean it will work well for your organization. Following in the footsteps of other companies is called mimicry, and while it might be flattering, it is often very dangerous.

Effective Instruction: Aligning Needs, Goals, and Purpose

Sometimes instruction needs to be serious, sometimes experiential, sometimes individual, and sometimes social. Sometimes content is the issue, sometimes it’s motivation, and sometimes learner preference. It all depends. Understand the primary goals of each instructional strategy, and get to know them well.

Will Companies Ever Learn?

Judy Rosenblum has dealt with all of the obstacles that keep companies from getting smarter. Here is her 10-point curriculum for getting smart about learning.

Cisco’s Quick Study

Tom Kelly is using the Web to reinvent training inside the world’s most Internet-centric big company. Here’s what he’s learned about e-learning — and how it’s changing the style and the substance of training at Cisco Systems.

Running Training Like a Business: Determining the Return on Investment of Your Learning Programs

Demonstrating the business benefits of spending on human performance has been challenging for executives and researchers alike. The Accenture Learning Return on Investment methodology breaks new ground by showing it is possible to measure the value of learning. This paper describes the methodology – and the dramatic business ROI from Accenture’s own employee learning programs.

Boosting the Instructional Effectiveness of Conference Workshops

To help your facilitators do a better job – and better ensure the overall success of your conferences – consider passing along these basic, but vitally important, recommendations.

Editor’s Note: some of these recommendations are useful for any kind of instruction or presentation

Does executive education really improve business performance?

“Our line-up of essayists is, we believe, as distinguished as ever. It starts with two eminent deans – John Quelch (formerly of London Business School, now back at Harvard) and Xavier Gilbert and Peter Lorange of IMD. Both naturally promote the virtues of management education – Quelch praising the achievements of the MBA, notably in the United States, Lorange and Gilbert explaining how to make … [ Read more ]

Attention, Class!!! 16 Ways to Be a Smarter Teacher

In an economy filled with surprise and uncertainty, being an effective leader means being a good teacher. But how do you lead and teach at the same time? Who are your most important students? And what about recess?