Every day, I have the opportunity to work with companies who want to leverage corporate training for business results. This means I am always interested in gaining insight from people who bring dramatic change to companies by investing in learning and employee development. One such individual is David Vance, who writes The Business of Learning blog for Chief Learning Officer. Vance writes from his experience as the founder and former president of Caterpillar University, which aligns corporate goals with training while meeting the learning needs of Caterpillar and dealer employees. He now consults with organizations on learning and performance issues, and has even published a book titled The Business of Learning: How to Manage Corporate Training to Improve Your Bottom Line.
What I appreciate about Vance is that his writing emphasizes how training is not an expense for businesses, but it is an investment in the people who can make a company great. In his recent post “Framing the Learning Discussion at Budget Time,” Vance discusses how learning and development professionals shouldn’t take their training budget for granted, but should instead be always prepared to show the real impact training can have on business.
Here’s some of his advice for corporate learning professionals who want to show the importance of training for next year’s budget:
“To make your case, carefully align learning initiatives to the key organization goals and secure agreement with senior leaders on the expected contribution or impact of learning on those goals. In short, build a business case for your learning investment and incorporate in a business plan for learning…Your business case may be qualitative or quantitative, but at least you will have addressed your leaders’ reasons for investing in learning. At a minimum you will have a great discussion about learning with your leaders and your organization will be much better for it.”
I recommend Vance’s writing to corporate professionals who want to not only improve training at their organizations, but also want to help colleagues become more invested in the importance of learning and development. If you’re interested in reading more from David Vance, visit Chief Learning officer to find the The Business of Learning blog – and tell us what you think about it!
With Dreamforce 2012 less than a week away, we wanted to give you some final insights to help you get the most out of the conference. First, visit our “3 Things to do with Blackboard at Dreamforce 2012” page to see how you can meet our team, watch a demo, and hear case studies from the Fortune 500 companies who use our solutions -- all at our Dreamforce booth (#1403!).
You can also watch my recent interview below with Salesforce MVP Matt Brown, where he discusses Dreamforce sneak peeks and the perks of being an MVP:
Once you make it to Dreamforce, be sure to stop by Booth #1403 to meet Matt Brown, myself, and others from Blackboard team. You can also keep up with us by following @BlackboardProEd, @lperlis, @mattybme on Twitter for real-time updates throughout Dreamforce. Until then, let us know if you have any questions about Blackboard Learn for Salesforce, and we’ll see you in San Francisco!
With Dreamforce 2012 just a few weeks away, we’ve been thinking about ways attendees can get the most out of this year’s conference. Though attendees usually see a significant ROI on their time spent at Dreamforce, stop by to speak with us and hear about specific ways Blackboard clients (or those interested in learning more about our solutions) can take their Dreamforce experience to the next level.
1. Learn how customers like M5 Networks are improving sales training with Blackboard
2. Watch a demo to see our training solutions in action
3. Have a one-on-one meeting with Salesforce MVP Matt Brown
Before you head to San Francisco for Dreamforce 2012, I also suggest checking out the list of sessions to see which presentations are most relevant to you and your industry. There are over 750 expert-led sessions this year, so be sure to plan out some of your must-see presentations ahead of time!
If you want to learn more about the ways you can enhance your Dreamforce experience with Blackboard, check out our resource page here or watch the video below:
And if you haven’t registered for Dreamforce yet, it’s not too late! Click here to learn about the special Blackboard discount code so you can register today.
I recently heard the quote above, and it has got me thinking about ways Blackboard brings action to corporate education. In general, it seems to me that increasing employee participation in training through teamwork and hands-on activities is one of the best ways to teach workers actionable skills they can immediately apply on the job.
Though Blackboard offers numerous solutions that can help companies bring more action to education, Blackboard Collaborate is specifically designed to help companies offer a more collaborative, interactive, and mobile learning experience. Since content delivered through Collaborate often requires learner participation, you’ll keep everyone engaged like never before.
Mobile collaboration: Modern, active learners have a need for speed. Collaborate offers mobile-enabled web conferencing features that allow learners to join live meetings from iPhones or iPads and to interact via text chat and two-way audio.
Interactive whiteboard: As one of the most disruptive elearning features found in Collaborate, the whiteboard allows faculty and students to collaborate in real-time to create course content. With simultaneous presenters, you’ll have highly engaging discussions where everyone can contribute and participate.
In a little over one month, sales practitioners and industry experts from around the world will gather at Dreamforce 2012 in San Francisco. What is Dreamforce, you ask? It’s the annual gathering of the entire community of salesforce.com experts who share practices, hands-on training, and new innovations with the Salesforce user community. This year’s four-day conference will feature over 650 breakout sessions as well as keynote addresses from former Secretary of State Colin Powell, Virgin Group Founder Sir Richard Branson, Burberry CEO Angela Ahrendts…and others!
