Elaine Biech

Retain outstanding talent with a successful training and development program One of the best ways to retain great talent in your business is to deliver a strong training and development program—and this book gives you the tools to do just that. Featuring the latest strides in talent development, such as social learning, hybrid training, creating videos, and more, it arms you with everything you need to upskill employees to be more effective, productive, satisfied, and loyal. Develop a robust training and development programFoster a supportive and innovative work environmentUse mentoring, coaching, and informal learning effectivelyAlign learning to your organization’s needs Engage your employees with a motivating training program using the helpful guidance in Training & Development For Dummies!

This career development tool kit is for people who want to take charge of their own professional futures. If you want to have a career that is meaningful and inspires you, you must prepare for it the same way you would a marathon--developing an overall training plan to carry you through to race day and beyond. This is especially important in today's unpredictable work world, where organizations are in a state of constant flux, and many have either eliminated their employee development programs or adopted a generic, one-size-fits-all approach.Skills for Career Success maps the strategies and skills you will need to take responsibility for your own future. It provides an overview of career development basics, including how to write an Individual Development Plan (IDP) that is practical and useful to you. The core of the book is an easy-to-navigate catalog of fifty-one critical skills, such as communicating clearly, adapting to situations, advocating for yourself, managing time, and selling your ideas. For each skill, there are actions you can take immediately, ongoing practices, and long-term goals. Beyond the skills, there is advice for keeping your career on track, mapping a path beyond your current job, overcoming personal roadblocks, finding your passion at work, and initiating talent conversations with your manager. There are also guidelines for managers who want to bring out the best in their people.

Everything you ever wanted to know about consulting—a practical roadmap for aspiring entrepreneurs Seismic changes occurring in the workforce are leading to more and more people entering the world of contract, freelance, and contingency work. Rapid changes in demographics and advances in technology have led companies and talent to engage in profoundly new ways and consulting is one of the keys to success. The New Business of Consulting is authentic and practical, and shares the knowledge and skills required to start and grow a successful consulting business. From how to make a smooth career transition, to how to determine a consulting fee, to how consultants inadvertently create a bad reputation, it covers everything you need to know to thrive and flourish in this competitive field. Covers contemporary topics, such as how to achieve success in the gig economyDiscloses a reliable technique to land the clients you wantPresents options to help you balance your life and your businessPrepares you for naming your business, managing critical financial issues, and building a client relationshipShows you how to take your income and impact beyond working as a solopreneur The crucial start-up days of a consulting business may be frenetic and fraught with questions. This new edition provides sanity and answers all the questions. It includes practical tools, templates, and checklists that you can download and implement immediately.

An action plan for working as a consultant Management consulting is a $250 billion industry and growing at a rate of over four percent annually. Many predict that more than 40 percent of the U.S. workforce will soon be contingent, freelance, or consulting members of the workforce—making this book more relevant than ever. Individuals become independent consultants out of necessity or preference: necessity because they lost their job or the company offered an attractive exit package; preference because they want a career change, more control over their time, or an enriched, varied work situation. Consulting also appeals to the Millennial workforce who are searching for careers that offer a good salary as well as meaningful work. The New Consultant’s Quick Start Guide: • Serves as a companion to The New Business of Consulting • Provides you with a place to plan your transition into consulting • Helps you identify your niche, develop a business plan, charge what you’re worth, and create a marketing strategy to ensure a steady stream of clients • Prepares you for changes you will encounter beyond your professional life, including social, family, and financial aspects The New Consultant’s Quick Start Guide helps you work through the challenges of consulting such as working alone, deciding on necessary insurance coverage, finding your first clients, struggling with cash flow, and understanding market trends.

The best organizations recognize that no leader or employee can be expert in everything, but that everyone needs to be at their best if organizations are to be productive and successful. If your goal is to develop talent within your organization, this concise yet foundational book has the keys to success.Renowned industry leader and bestselling author Elaine Biech guides you through getting started, designing and implementing your talent development program, demonstrating success, and planning next steps. But just as important, she poses critical questions that only you and your organization can answer. Biech interweaves best practices with the latest technology to offer many templates, tools, worksheets, and tips to help you explore how to support your organization into the future.Starting a Talent Development Program is part of a new ATD series, What Works in Talent Development, which addresses the most critical topics facing today’s talent development practitioners. Each book in the series is written for trainers, by trainers, and offers an examination of core subject matter and a defined way to solve real issues.

ClothThis book is for leaders and managers looking to develop themselves and others. It is for training & development professionals, inside or working as independent consultants, who can use the book as a coaching tool, a blueprint for leader development plans, and in other ways .For leaders concerned with their development, dedicated to developing their people for more responsibilities, and committed to organizational sustainability, this book will help in those efforts.

The all-time bestselling training handbook, updated for new technologies and roles Active Training turns instructional design on its head by shifting the emphasis away from the instructor, and on to the learner. Comprehensively updated to reflect the many developments in the field, this new fourth edition covers the latest technologies and applications, the evolving role of the trainer, and how new business realities impact training, advancing new evidence-based best practices for new trainer tasks, skills, and knowledge. Up to date theory and research inform the practical tips and techniques that fully engage learners and help them get the most out of sessions, while updated workplace examples and revised templates and worksheets help bring these techniques into the classroom quickly. You'll gain insight into improving training evaluation by using Return on Expectations (ROE), learn how to extend the value of training programs through transfer of learning, and develop fresh, engaging methods that incorporate state-of-the-art applications. Active Training designs offer just the right amount of content; the right balance of affective, behavioral, and cognitive learning; a variety of approaches; real-life problem solving; gradual skill-building; and engaging delivery that uses the participants' expertise as a foundation for learning. This book is the classic guide to employing Active Training methods effectively and appropriately for almost any topic. Learn how the trainer's role has changedEngage learners through any training delivery methodInspire collaboration and innovation through applicationOvercome the challenges trainers face in the new business environment Active Training methods make training sessions fun, engaging, relevant, and most importantly, effective. Participants become enthusiastic about the material, and view sessions as interesting challenges rather than as means to fulfill requirements. To bring these widely endorsed methods into your training repertoire, Active Training is the complete practical handbook you need.

Fresh, creative strategies guaranteed to enliven online training 101 Ways to Make Learning Active Beyond the Classroom provides proven, practical strategies, activities, and tips for those tasked with facilitating training in any subject area among alternative settings. Based on the best-selling Active Training approach, these methods have been designed by recognized experts, and are guaranteed to enliven any learning event. Readers will find a toolkit of ready-to-use exercises and tips for organizing, conducting, and delivering active learning, in alternative settings on the job or around the world. The book is organized in a way that allows trainers to quickly and easily identify strategies that hold the most promise for specific situations. Each strategy is illustrated with a case example that demonstrates the concepts in action. Two hundred tips organized in twenty how-to lists will prove invaluable for using Twitter, coaching virtually, encouraging informal learning, opening interactive virtual learning sessions, and much more. Coverage includes best practices for social media and informal learning, common e-learning tools, as well as guidance toward using a full gamut of tools from gamification and simulation to serious games and m-learning. Active training encourages participants to use their brains to study ideas, solve problems, and apply what they've learned. It's a fast-paced, fun, supportive, and personally engaging environment. This book shows training facilitators the proven techniques that help learners get more out of the material. Design a more engaging learning environmentImprove delivery with optimized technologyUtilize effective learning tools and practical strategiesLearn best practices for social media, coaching, virtual learning, and more Learners need to figure things out by themselves, ask questions, practice skills, and transfer skills and knowledge to the job. With proven strategies designed by industry leaders, 101 Ways to Make Learning Active Beyond the Classroom is the indispensable guide to the design and delivery of effective alternative ways to learn.

Liven up training with new, dynamic strategies for active participation 101 More Ways to Make Training Active brings together a rich, comprehensive collection of training strategies and activities into one easy source. Designed for quick navigation, this useful guide is packed with classroom-ready ideas and twenty "how-to" lists to enliven any learning situation, helping you better engage their trainees and encourage active participation. These techniques are applicable to almost any topic and learning objective, and provide guidance on every aspect of Active Training design and delivery. Each strategy includes recommendations for length of time, number of participants, and other conditional factors, plus a case study that illustrates the strategy in action. Coverage includes topics like communication, change management, coaching, feedback, conflict, diversity, customer service, and more, providing a complete reference for facilitating active training sessions. Active Training requires the participants to do most of the work. They use their brains, and apply what they've learned. The environment is fast-paced, fun, supportive, and personally engaging, and encourages participants to figure things out for themselves. This book contains specific, practical strategies for bringing this environment to any training session. Learn new strategies for stimulating active discussionInspire creativity, innovation, and collaborationTeach better decision making, leadership, and self-managementMake lectures active to encourage more participation Active training makes training sessions more enjoyable, and as participants invest themselves more heavily into the material, outcomes begin to improve dramatically. This dynamic atmosphere doesn't happen by accident; the activities and the course itself must be designed and delivered in a way that encourages active participation. In 101 More Ways to Make Training Active, you get a toolkit of creative, challenging, and fun ways to make it happen.

The Leader in Resources for Training & HR Professionals for the Past Four Decades Experiential Learning ActivitiesInstrumentsArticles For more than 40 years, The Pfeiffer Annuals have helped professionals in the workplace learning and performance field to stay ahead of their organizations' needs. The 2013 Pfeiffer Training Annual is no exception. It offers a hands-on guide to the latest thinking and approaches to training and development. To address the need for leadership development, the Annual presents a "Preparing Leaders for the Future" theme, with valuable information on such practical topics as improving learning and performance, exploring skills of successful leaders, the supervisor's motivational tool kit, and much more. ELAs are presented as complete, ready-to-use training designs. This year in the Editor's Choice section Karl Albrecht shares his ideas for thinking more clearly, creatively, and cleverly and Lou Russell offers a real-world activity that helps participants see how they contribute to the stress and frustration of their work day. Use the articles section for your own professional development or as a lecture resource within your training sessions. Must-haves in this section include articles by Catherine Rezak, Homer H. Johnson, and Leonard D. Goodstein. With the depth and breadth of resources, the Annual content is entirely new each year, ensuring a steady stream of contemporary knowledge and tools. Use the Annual to stay on top of developments within the profession, dip into the content for a contribution that targets a specific performance need, or to develop a complete program, and learn how others in the field are tackling the ever-increasing challenges of developing a capable, productive workforce.

This is not your typical training book. You won't find a traditional training-cycle outline or a classic training table of contents. Instead, this book pinpoints the key actions necessary to successful training and focuses on the elements with the most influence on bottom-line results. Throughout the book you'll discover helpful, ready-to-use tools: worksheets, evaluation forms, tables, checklists, case studies, and reminders and suggestions.Whether you're a middle- or upper-level manager, or a workplace learning or human-resource professional, 10 Steps to Successful Training can provide you with options for enhancing the learning environment in your organization. Boost your success as a trainer and help others learn more effectively by investing in this essential guidebook today.

Use change as a competitive tool and efficiently move organizations through the change process. Thriving Through Change is not a book of theories, but a change leader's practical guide focused on supercharging the change implementation process. Templates, checklists, and advice help to walk you through.

Avoid costly litgation! You'll want to keep this user-friendly overview of legal issues on your desk at all times! This is the only complete "how-to" guide and overview of legal issues you face as a consultant. You'll learn how to make sense of legal jargon and a variety of contracts as well as learn when to seek out the advice of legal counsel and when to walk away from losing relationships. This book isn't intended to replace competent legal advice-rather it is a time- and cost-effective means to understand legal issues before pursuing legal.Includes a diskette with useful tools, sample forms, checklists, and links to technology-based resources. "I beg you, do not start your own consulting business without first reading The Consultant's Legal Guide. And if you already have, read it now! I assure you that when you put into practice the sound advice of Elaine Biech and Linda Byars Swindling you will save yourself the heartache and headache of needless legal hassels...The Consultant's Legal Guide will help you every day of your business life." --James M. Kouzes, chairman, Tom Peters Group/Learning Systems, co-author of The Leadership Challenge and Encouraging the Heart"A great flight plan to avoid turbulence...Whether you are a consultant or the CEO of a Fortune 500 company, this book should be on your desk for a reference in so many areas." --Howard Putnam, Former CEO, Southwest Airlines and Braniff International, author of The Winds of Turbulence "A well thought out, practical approach to dealing effectively with lawyers and other consultants. If followed, it should help all parties be better prepared and do a better job." --Rita Reuss, attorney, former vice president, Land O' Lakes"The Consultant's Legal Guide is better than an MBA in business relationships. Clear, concise, thoughtful and thorough. . .after reading this book, consultants will sleep better at night!"--Pamela J. Schmidt, vic