The Death of Training: 

Thriving in Change

The University of North Texas

Dr. Jeff M. Allen

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What What Happened Happened

to to Training?Training?

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Jeff’s PollJeff’s Poll

What is your title?

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Jeff’s PollJeff’s Poll

What do you do?

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Jeff’s PollJeff’s Poll

Who holds you responsible?

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Jeff’s PollJeff’s Poll

Who knows what you can do?

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Jeff’s PollJeff’s Poll

Who values what you can do?

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ASTDASTD• ASTD (American Society for Training & Development) is the

world's largest association dedicated to workplace learning and performance professionals. ASTD's 70,000 members and associates come from more than 100 countries and thousands of organizations - multinational corporations, medium-sized and small businesses, government, academia, consulting firms, and product and service suppliers.

• ASTD marks its beginning in 1944 when the organization held its first annual conference. In recent years, ASTD has widened the industry's focus to connect learning and performance to measurable results, and is a sought-after voice on critical public policy issues

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The ASTD BEST AwardsThe ASTD BEST Awards

debuted in 2003:

recognize organizations that demonstrate enterprise-wide success as a result of employee learning and development

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HPI Certificate AwardHPI Certificate Award• According to Rothwell in ASTD Models for

Human Performance Improvement:

human performance improvement is the systematic process of discovering and analyzing important human performance gaps, planning for future improvements in human performance, designing and developing cost-effective and ethically justifiable interventions to close performance gaps, implementing the interventions, and evaluating the financial and nonfinancial results.

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Outsource Learning Outsource Learning WorkshopWorkshop

Several recent research reports cite outsourcing learning as a growing practice in our field. A few organizations are outsourcing the entire learning function, while many others are strategically determining which functions are best outsourced and which should be kept in-house.

“…“…defines the profession defines the profession in the context of its in the context of its strategic contribution to strategic contribution to performance, and tries to performance, and tries to balance the financial and balance the financial and business goals of business goals of institutions with the institutions with the welfare of the people welfare of the people who are doing who are doing the work.”the work.”

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ASTD HPI ASTD HPI CompetenciCompetenci

eses

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• Industry Awareness: understanding the vision, strategy, goals, and culture of an industry; linking human performance improvement interventions to organizational goals

• Leadership Skills: knowing how to lead or influence others positively to achieve desired work results

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• Interpersonal Relationship Skills: working effectively with others to achieve common goals and exercising effective interpersonal influence

• Technological Awareness and Understanding: using existing or new technology and different types of software and hardware; understanding performance support systems and applying them as appropriate

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• Problem-Solving Skills: detecting performance gaps and helping other people discover ways to close the performance gaps in the present and future; closing performance gaps between actual and ideal performance

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• Systems Thinking and Understanding: identifying inputs, throughputs, and outputs of a subsystem, system, or suprasystem and applying that information to improve human performance; realizing the implications of interventions on many parts of an organization, process, or individual and taking steps to address any side effects of human performance improvement interventions

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• Performance Understanding: distinguishing between activities and results; recognizing implications, outcomes, and consequences

• Knowledge of Interventions: demonstrating an understanding of the many ways that human performance can be improved in organizational settings; showing how to apply specific human performance improvement interventions to close existing or anticipated performance gaps

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• Business Understanding: demonstrating awareness of the inner workings of business functions and how business decisions affect financial or non-financial work results

• Organization Understanding: seeing organizations as dynamic, political, economic, and social systems that have multiple goals; using this larger perspective as a framework for understanding and influencing events and change

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• Negotiating/Contracting Skills: organizing, preparing, overseeing, and evaluating work performed by vendors, contingent workers, or outsourcing agents

• Buy-in/Advocacy Skills: building ownership or support for change among affected individuals, groups, and other stakeholders

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• Coping Skills: knowing how to deal with ambiguity and how to handle the stress resulting from change and from multiple meanings or possibilities

• Ability to See "Big Picture": looking beyond details to see overarching goals and results

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• Consulting Skills: understanding the results that stakeholders desire from a process and providing insight into how efficiently and effectively those results can be achieved

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What are What are the tools?the tools?

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Is there a Is there a solution?solution?

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I believe:

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We must expand our title!

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We must have a title that is inclusive

our abilities.

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We must join professional forces

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Stages of the Field Stages of the Field

0: No formal training1: Trainer2: HRD Professional3: HPI Consultant4: Workplace Learning Performance5: Learning Facilitator/Workplace

Learner6: Learning & Performance Specialist7: Performance Facilitator

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University of North TexasDepartment of Technology

and Cognition

P.O. Box 311337Denton, Texas 76203-1337

Phone: (940)565-2093

Dr. Jeff Allen jallen@unt.edu

www.attd.unt.edu

The University of North Texas