Any organization with a comprehensive training program has a leadership development curriculum. These programs include everything from conventional classroom learning with guest speakers to high-tech simulations and lavish retreats. There also may be mentorship thrown in, as well as multiple job rotations. Despite the well-rounded curricula, many…

Guidelines for media-based training that works are presented: tailor your media session to its audience; tell the audience what is important and why; use mental imagery to promote memory; don't overload your audience with information; and relate new facts and ideas to things the audience already knows. (CT)

Suggests ways to minimize the risk of training failure and ensure that training accomplishes its objectives. Explains key differences to be learned in order to use the appropirate method of applying quality assurance and quality control. Examines five quality factors to be measured, including pre- and post-training testing devices. (CT)

Offers effective ways to increase student involvement in the training classroom. Suggestions include use of questions and answers, subgroups, case studies and role playing, and debating. Indicates that the measure of success lies in how much usable learning has been accomplished by the greatest number of people. (JOW)

Skill is the crucial element that turns knowledge into behaviors that succeed in the real world. Often "soft skills," such as management, leadership, interpersonal communications, and problem solving, vanish when people are on the job, indicating the need for more effective training programs. (JOW)

Describes Texas Instruments' (TI) attempt to capture the key skills and personal characteristics of outstanding manufacturing supervisors in a competency model derived from research on high performers. The result was a one-day simulation and assessment center that looks and feels like a day on the shop floor. (JOW)

Presents (with tongue in cheek) a four-style behavior model guaranteed to produce excellence in the four types of trainees: nematodes (docile but learn nothing), gerbils (fond of noncompetitive games and hugging), warthogs (like to attend expensive seminars), and Cro-Magnon (like to interpret to others as opposed to actually learning anything…

Lists strategies designed to help trainees benefit from the actual training program. Pretraining strategies include self-assessment and familiarizing management with training content. Transfer-enhancing strategies include use of lifelike situations and building trigger mechanisms. Posttraining strategies include follow-up letters and chats.…

Describes a seven step decision-making process which enables organizations to examine training situations to determine whether behavior modeling is appropriate. Includes a behavior modeling decision flow chart. (JOW)

Examines the recent past of network certification; concludes that web-based training works best under the guidance of a trainer with personal investment in the learners. (JOW)

A standardized training valuation system (TVS) is built around a set of analytic tools and employs a four-step process: situation, intervention, impact, value. The methodology identifies specific, current, and potential values as well as value obtained. It also helps determine why a training program failed. (JOW)

Discusses ethics training in terms of expected outcomes, contribution to the organization, value, effectiveness, and evaluation methods. Addresses what is known about ethics training, the renewed emphasis on ethics, and what works. (JOW)

Nine reasons that training programs do not succeed (for example, limited training resources, reasons for training unclear, critical nontraining factors ignored, management support is lacking, role of supervisor not recognized, little preparation or followup) and five training success factors (value, focus, power, mass, duration) are presented. (CT)

Discusses the peer-training model, opposition to the plan, major objectives of the model, strategies for motivating employees to train and for making training a priority, training the trainer, ongoing training in the work units, and benefits of the program. (CT)

For detailed information that needs to be retrieved occasionally before being memorized, individualized instruction is the key. Unfortunately, many executives confuse the term with the program instruction which they studied in the early 1960s. Information is provided to help the trainer convince management that self-paced learning succeeds, and…