This is the first in a five part series on managing learning teams and how to succeed in the ‘new normal’ of our industry. As the head of a learning function, global education, etc – I see five main components that are the lifeblood of the organization. Innovation. Strategic planning. Communication/Change Management. Execution. Evaluation. Innovation and the Learning team. How much time and effort are you allowing team members to work on innovative projects that might have absolutely no relation to current needs and plans? Our company has, indeed, stumbled onto some of its new products. MORE >>

So you'd like to see your training go viral huh? Whether it's for sales, technical, customers, partners or internal to your organization, there are some clear guidelines to make this happen. At VMG, we love the cloud, so I'm going to reference one of the best in the business on helping you to take your training to the next level and get real business results. Kevin Dobbs runs Montclair Advisors, which is a Software-as-a-Service advisory firm focused on strategy, revenues and product solutions. With a tip of the hat to Kevin, I offer you seven tips to make your learning viral. Trials. Well, duh. MORE >>

This is the third post in the series for building the business of learning in your organization. The first two posts covered Innovation and Strategic Planning. This third post is key to winning with any program or product you plan to launch, no matter who the audience might be (sales, internal, customers, partners). Ok, I’ll start right off by saying, learning organizations in general stink at marketing. Marketing (also including communication and change management) is a key component for success of all learning organizations. Why does the training group need marketing? Market’eers know it too. MORE >>

SaaS VPs and line of business leaders are increasingly making strategic investments in learning portals, though the companies may not even have training departments. In fact, they sometimes start here, bypassing traditional training technologies and organizations completely. Why would they do this? Two very important reasons: one, learning portals are a strong fit with the SaaS ethos and business model, and two, they make good fiscal sense and offer multi-faceted returns. The majority of what people need to know to be successful emerges on the job and in the moment, not in the classroom. MORE >>

'Start Small, Think Big, Scale Fast' is a phrase I've heard a few times from our Chairman, Tom Kraack. What happens when a company has already become big? Years of processes, teams upon teams, re-org upon re-org. Can they still start small, think big innovative thoughts, and then take that to scale? lot of those big (generally successful) enterprises of our day have built huge learning organizations to deliver training without evolving to understand how to really deliver the critical knowledge and skills to support the business.I mean, those bits are probably in there.somewhere.probably. MORE >>