In the August edition of American Society for Training and Development’s e-Zine, they listed three freeware software available for mindmapping. Here’s a brief rundown:

When doing classroom instruction for computers, you still want to make it as interactive as possible. An inexpensive training standard is the name tent. Fold one 8 ½ x11 inch piece of paper into thirds. On one side, have each participant write their name. On a second side, have them draw one red circle and one green circle so one is above the other when it’s vertical—like a stop light. Have the participants then place this name tent on the top of their computer station. If the red light is on top of the vertical,

Simply telling new hires what they need to know will not be nearly as effective as actively involving them in the process. Following is a brief look at what adult learners are made of and a few strategies for working with them effectively.

I thought you might be interested in hearing a success story from your Train-the-Trainer class. This past couple months I spent working with some of our product managers to put together their sessions at our national sales meeting. My goal was to make the sessions as interactive as possible. From the feedback I heard, I definitely succeeded! Here are just a few highlights the product managers shared with me after the meeting:

“People who lead on a higher level have [people] focus on different things,” said Ken Blanchard as he opened the 15th annual The Bob Pike Group conference called The Ascent. Most organizations have people focused on the strategic leadership of a company: the information that says where we want to go, what we want to be. However, it’s the operations management, the day-to-day that dictates how much vitality, employee passion and customer loyalty a company has. And people who lead at a higher level recognize that.

Four different companies were recognized by The Bob Pike Group for initiating and implementing innovative creative training or teaching strategies.

Perhaps combining the musical stylings of Dan Fogelberg with rock’s AC/DC or The Boss singing “Green Acres” isn’t what first comes to mind—or even second—but Mike Rayburn’s mind works a little differently. He uses his musical ability combined with this twisted thinking to create a motivational and entertaining look at doing the impossible.

With four generations to train, trainers have to realize “you can’t create an environment that motivates if you don’t understand the value system” of each generation, said Marilyn Corrigan discussing leadership across generations at The Pike Ascent.

“Train-the-Trainer Specialist Certificate Program” Facilitated by The Bob Pike Group through the University of MN College of Continuing Education The U of M and The Bob Pike Group have partnered to offer one of the most comprehensive train-the-trainer certificate programs available - starting this September 2008. Using research-based, field-tested, creative training strategies, you will learn how to effectively manage and influence people in educational and training situations. The highly interactive and engaging courses in this certificate focus on: training facilitation skills, participant-centered methodologies, presentation skills, design strategies, confidence building and more.

2008 - 3rd Quarter Creative Teaching e-Zine.