Creativity dreams up ideas, but innovation carries them through. How else does a company remain both productive and adaptive?

Just because you've reached the C-suite doesn't mean you no longer can benefit from networking.

Sam Ladah, HR vice president of IBM cloud and talent, provides an inside look at the talent development function at IBM.

The talent development tools of the trade. Ann Parker outlines what readers can expect in the Fall 2016 issue of the Association for Talent Development's CTDO magazine.

Talent development is an accelerator for the transition to the "new" IBM.

Leveraging learning technologies is not an L&D strength, two independent studies conclude.

A leader's ability to conquer common business challenges is a critical measure of leadership readiness. But a new research study reports that it's not only the personal characteristics of the leader that ultimately determine success. Context matters. Unfortunately, context can change quickly. "It won't take long for most leaders to find themselves in an environment that they are ill-prepared to...

Organizations face increasingly volatile and complex markets. To compete, they need a business strategy that counteracts negative forces and guides individual lines of business toward positive outcomes. The strategy needs to present leaders with guidelines on how to make decisions and allocate resources to accomplish key objectives, as well as define the actions people in the business should take (or not take) and...

Fast-moving global markets, digital disruption, and a multigenerational workforce are just a few factors forcing companies to innovate. To help executives understand the challenges facing their organizations, a recent trends survey reveals that core talent functions such as culture, leadership, engagement, and learning round out the top 10 trends. Let's take a closer look at the top 10 trends.

Working to improve San Antonio's critical shortage of nurses, physicians, and other healthcare professionals by filling the pipeline with area young people, University Health System has a robust Next Generation of Healthcare Professionals program. This program gives back to the community, fulfills an important part of the University Health System mission, and provides a source for future talent recruitment.

Evidence suggests that organizations are more competitive, agile, and engaged when employees freely and consistently share knowledge. In other words, these high-performing companies have an established culture of learning. Despite the obvious benefits, only 31 percent of organizations have well-developed learning cultures, according to Building a Culture of Learning: The Foundation of a Successful Organization, a new report from ATD Research and the Institute for Corporate Productivity (i4cp).

Quick! Without hesitation, jot down your company's innovation process. What's done at corporate headquarters to consistently identify high-potential ideas and translate them into market-share gains and increased profits? A mere glance at the business headlines speaks to the struggles major companies have with innovation. Institutionalizing the ability to adjust course is a...

Nancy Altobello and the talent function at EY not only have a seat at the leadership table, but also a valued role throughout the organization.

The argument: SMEs, not trainers, are the better choice for leading training courses. It's constantly being discussed: Do subject matter experts make better teachers or should we leave the job to trainers?

High employee engagement has been the "holy grail" for talent development during the past few decades. Getting employee engagement right translates to higher productivity, employee retention, and many other intangibles for an organization. Get it wrong, and it becomes more difficult to hire the right people, keep them happy, and move the needle on the strategic imperatives for a company. However, with the rise of such companies as Google and Facebook, with their enviable campuses and perks, organizational culture has emerged as a bigger concern for companies, a...

As a senior talent development executive, you have a lot on your plate. Strategic planning, budget reviews, meetings with employees and clients (the list goes on)—all of which are paired with a constant stream of emails, text alerts, and phone calls that demand your attention. Amid all this noise, staying focused can be tough. But you can use the very technology that seems to zap your focus and interrupt your workflow to improve your focus and increase your productivity. These apps can help senior leaders maintain focus in an "always-on" world.

The skills gap has garnered significant attention in the United States and globally in recent years. Communities, states, regions, and entire nations—now more than ever given the globalization of business—pay a heavy price when they cannot find or equip workers with the right skills for critical jobs. Simply stated, they fail to flourish and falter when meeting customer demands. In fact, PricewaterhouseCoopers's 2015 Global CEO Survey found that three-quarters of 1,322 responding CEOs in 77 countries say the skills shortage is the biggest threat to their business...

In this Q&A, Chief Talent Development Officer Martha Soehren provides an inside look at the talent development function at Comcast Cable. 1. Where does talent development fit into the org chart? Is it under HR or free-standing? Talent development is aligned under me—so is the talent management function—and I report to...

Over the course of my career, I've had the pleasure of working for many fine firms and a collection of powerful leaders. Many of those experiences were in new settings—mergers, acquisitions, spin-offs, new lines of business, and ultimately new employers. Looking back on all my professional moves into new situations, there was a consistent pattern of newcomer advice—encouraging me to take advantage of being the new player on the team. The coaching included phrases such as: "It's OK to be ignorant," "Ask any and all questions," "Challenge the status quo," "Leverage...

ATD's 2015  State of the Industry report found that, in 2014, organizations on average spent $1,228.70 per employee on direct learning expenditures. This represents just over a 1.7 percent increase from 2013, when the average spent per employee was $1,207.73. The increase in spending outpaces the average inflation rate of slightly under 1.4 percent seen in...