The environment for commerce is changing. Change is happening faster, and this impacts both expectations and ability. Customers expect that staff can provide answers ‘on demand’, and employees expect support in the moment. We’re moving learning to the workflow, and this has some important implications. Major factors include moving from learning beforehand to supporting in […]

It may be argued (or mythologized) that the best salespeople in the world are stereotypically ambitious, self-starters who will sell, sell, sell no matter what. However, the research and real-world outcomes show that most salespeople, in fact, benefit substantially from ongoing training. It keeps them not only abreast of the latest product information, but also […]

Have you ever seen a road construction project designed to accommodate more traffic and ease congestion, only to see that when it was completed, the growing population simply filled the new road and gridlock continued? I see similar patterns within organizations as they attempt to plan for the future. For decades, companies tried to become […]

I recently stumbled upon a video of Jim Carrey giving a commencement address at the Maharishi University of Management. All students, including Carrey, at the school practice Transcendental Meditation. You can watch the B-Roll here or the full speech here.  There were many gold nuggets in his address, however for this post about self-sabotaging your learning efforts, one stood […]

We live in a complex world, and many of our products and services are reflecting that. In many organizations, it’s up to marketing to help educate those who will eventually use these products and services. It’s up to marketers to educate customers before they even become customers. Let’s think of this in dollars and cents […]

Today’s customers want information now. Often that information needs to come from a customer-facing sales or service person. Since they’re literally the face of your business, make sure they’re equipped with the very latest product training at all times. And, make sure you don’t bog them down for long periods of time -- training can […]

The remote workforce is growing.  Numbers from Gallup show that 43 percent of employees work remotely at least some of the time, and according to Globalworkplaceanalytics.com, the number of employees who work remotely has grown by 140 percent since 2005, nearly 10 times the rate of the rest of the workforce. That number does not […]

Hire the heart and train the brain; this is an axiom that many of us have heard before. Hire for attitude, train skill. Yet, in today's rallying cry for more technical training, this important message gets lost in the crowd. Soft skills are pushed aside to feed the technical need obsession. There is no quarrel that the need […]

The phrase “digital transformation” is used with increased frequency these days. It is one of those terms people invoke in business conversations while everyone nods in agreement, saying, “Yes, we must digitally transform.” But does anyone in that conversation know what it really means — and does it mean the same thing to everyone? I […]

A simple question often stumps the best of leaders. It’s one of those questions that should be on every corporate strategy document, and yet often isn’t. “What sort of experience do you want to deliver?” Sure, it might be answered ten different ways by ten different people, all of whom believe they are correct. But […]