Content about co-founder

February 23, 2012
Good Employee Health Leads to Improved Company Performance

Historically, businesses have viewed employee wellness as a way to lower health-care costs. But the rewards of wellness go far beyond reducing the price of employee benefits. If people feel good, they perform better. And if they perform at a higher level, so will your company. Here’s the evidence that shows the direct links between good health and improved company performance.

By Dr. Jack Groppel, Ph.D., Co-Founder, Human Performance Institute, and Vice President, Applied Science and Performance Training, Wellness & Prevention, Inc.

January 24, 2012
Q&A: Getting the Questions You Want

In the right circumstances, Q&A following a presentation or class can provide an opportunity for you to clarify complex ideas or expand on issues of particular relevance for your audience. Here’s how to make the most of these sessions and get the types of questions you want.

By Matt Abrahams, Co-Founder and Principal, Bold Echo Communications Solutions

The sound of silence… that uncomfortable lull at the end of your presentation when you ask for questions, and it takes a moment or two for someone to get up the nerve to speak.

November 3, 2011
The Myths of Return on Expectation

There is no need for another ambiguous term that creates more confusion. Instead, focus on defining expectations and developing objectives that link to meaningful business measures.

By Jack J. Phillips, Co-Founder, and Patti P. Phillips, Co-Founder, President and CEO, ROI Institute           

Learning and development professionals routinely create new terms and jargon. While meaningful to them, an obscure term often is confusing to key clients and executives. The most recent addition to the vocabulary is return on expectation(ROE). Let’s examine this term and relate it to what we know about current measurement systems.

What Is It?

October 3, 2011
Unexpected Barriers to Training in 3-D Virtual Worlds

Those who have been exposed to the benefits of training in 3-D virtual worlds have seen the advantages, but there are also several challenges. To help others anticipate some of these challenges, here are a few roadblocks we encountered along the way and how we worked around them.

By Mark Jankowski, Co-Founder, Shapiro Negotiations Institute

Those who have been exposed to the benefits of training in 3-D virtual worlds have seen the advantages, including: greater participant engagement; a more immersive learning experience; and interpersonal connection between participants. Some (like me originally) ran full steam ahead in promoting and using these 3-D virtual worlds. At first I thought that there would be three main barriers:

August 10, 2011
What’s Next? 3-D Internet?

With the help of 3-D virtual worlds, we now can engage in training by observing and coaching participants even when they are a thousand miles away from us. Participants in this type of virtual training no longer just passively listen to teacher tell a story. Instead, they’re able to “live” the story—virtually. Here are some examples of how virtual training using 3-D virtual worlds can become a simple and memorable framework for programs on effective negotiation.

By Mark Jankowski, Co-Founder, Shapiro Negotiations Institute

3-D movies have made a comeback and the popularity of 3-D TV is catching on quicker than we could have imagined, so we can safely assume it’s only a matter of time before 3-D Internet follows suit. That said, what does the emergence of 3-D virtual worlds mean for the training business?

August 1, 2011
Virtual Role-Playing Takes Center Stage

By using virtual world 3-D technology, such as VirtualU, VenueGen, and Second Life, training professionals not only can improve on the Webinar experience, they can improve on the experience of participants in role plays conducted live in the classroom. Here are four reasons virtual role plays may be more effective than their classroom counterparts.

By Mark Jankowski, Co-Founder, Shapiro Negotiations Institute

As training professionals are forced to move education from “front of the classroom” training to online training, they have discovered many challenges. How do you keep participant attention in Webinars? How do you create “live” role-play scenarios when participants are taking asynchronous training? How do you observe and coach participants when they are a thousand miles away from you?

July 1, 2011
A New Revolution in Online Training

A recentresearch report from Forrester Resarch predicts: “The 3-D Internet will be as important for work as the Web is today, and knowledge management professionals should begin to investigate and experiment with virtual worlds.” A look at the advantages of 3-D virtual platforms and how to get started.

By Mark Jankowski, Co-Founder Shapiro Negotiations Institute

3-D virtual platforms are Internet based, multi-user environments where participants create avatars, which are, simply put, computer-generated people. These avatars can attend training programs, participate in interactive group experiences, and collaborate with one another.

March 23, 2011
The Case for Embedded Training

According to the “Handbook of Human Performance Technology,” there is a trend to move training as close as possible to the work situation, both to save time off the job and to increase the likelihood that the worker actually will use the new knowledge and skills. Embedded training—which provides instruction in one content area while the participants are working in another—removes the learning obstacle of theory’s passivity when stripped of its context.

By Susan Lesser, Co-Founder and Partner, nPlusOne Consulting

I hear and I forget; I see and I remember; I do and I understand.

—Chinese Proverb