On Thursday, May 19, Blackboard sponsored an ASTD webinar featuring David Mallon, Principal Analyst with Bersin & Associates. The event, entitled The Next Generation of Sales Training focused on “what’s working and what’s to come.” During his presentation, Mallon touched on how the following areas have been impacted by the new generation of the sales force and how technology has changed them:

• Evolving learning functions
• New approaches to corporate training
• Next generation sales training
• The evolution of leadership & development
• Multiple generations in the workplace

Last Thursday, I participated in a webinar hosted by Hal Adler, founder and CEO of Leadership Landing. It focused on how companies and their executives can be great leaders and what makes them that way. The webinar covered an array of interesting topics, but the biggest takeaway for me was definitely the list of key attributes of great leaders. During the webinar, Adler pointed out companies that exhibited each of the five attributes.

I find it fascinating that these leaders, no matter what their industry, can share these leadership traits throughout their organizations through their training and workforce development programs. Please take a look at the enclosed chart below.  To learn more about the 5 key attributes, you can download Leadership Landing’s white paper on the topic. Join us after the jump to answer some thought-provoking questions and share your thoughts!

Last week, Blackboard attended the 2011 Chief Learning Officer magazine Symposium hosted by CLO Media. Entitled Learning Evolution, Alignment, Agility, and Adaptability; the event focused on how social learning has transitioned from a cutting-edge technology to an expected medium amongst learners. It was not long ago that people were wary of “electronic” mail. Many corporate stakeholders pushed back on this emerging tool and the Internet altogether. Looking back, it almost seems absurd that anyone ever objected to the idea. Today, not only do we regularly use email but we also, as learners, are taking advantage of public forums online to absorb everything we can – from our daily news to backchannel discussions from conferences like the CLO Symposium.

If you haven’t read it already, Jeff Cobb, managing director at Tagoras, shares his expertise in a second edition of his Learning 2.0 for Associations white paper. Cobb lays out a few additional key tools that were either not in existence or not as popular in 2007 when his first paper was published. Here, he explains how associations and organizations should shift their thinking regarding learning value. Cobb believes that learning 2.0 is about much more than simply integrating social media into education. “It is about maximizing the potential that the new opportunities for learning represent,” he says.

Cobb tells us that learning 2.0 is the convergence of web, learning, and education. The full report dives into how approaches to learning have evolved over the years and what impact the newer generation of Internet and communication technologies are having on learners. You can download the full report here. Read more from Cobb at the Mission to Learn blog he writes for ongoing learners. In the report, Cobb also explains that learning 2.0 happens outside the bounds of formal education because:

1.    It shifts from the teacher-centric, expert-dominated models and eliminates constraints on time and geography

2.    Learning environment begins to be driven by learners’ knowledge and not just teacher’s expertise

3.    Increased user control over content creation and data management

Let’s face it. The typical approach to educating association members can often be bit of a snooze.  A lack of engagement in the education process inhibits inspiration and can lead to an overall disinterest in the training topic. Why not give association members the one-two punch they are looking for? While a traditional webinar can be effective, it is nearly impossible to get all of your members online and on the phone all at the same time. And let’s face it, clicking through the slides after-the-fact is not all that helpful. Members are hungry for value-add resources that Blackboard Learn™ for Associations offers.