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.

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...

For a time, the landscape for learning seemed to have reached a steady state: Traditional instructor-led training remained the go-to option for priority programs, alongside classic coaching and mentoring initiatives for one-on-one (personal) development. E-learning courses, supported by a learning management system, provided self-directed alternatives where scalability or cost concerns dictated. Nagging questions about usage and impact remained, with some resources grossly underused and key metrics on such areas as leadership pipeline remaining stubbornly...

The Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA), signed into law in 2014, makes approximately $4 billion available for training during each of the next six years. The money is to be distributed through local workforce investment boards in three funding streams: adult, dislocated workers, and youth. One of the new components of WIOA requires more engagement with employers to understand:

One way to build a pipeline of potential employees is to invest in them early. That is the driving idea behind MTR Corporation's Train for Life's Journeys Program. MTR's focus on engaging youths in the local communities of Hong Kong is an outgrowth of the company's corporate responsibility mandate, and focuses on building community relationships while using training and development practices to teach soft skills and leadership development to teenagers. MTR considers corporate social responsibility a key factor to its success, and developing people is a critical...

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...

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...

Leadership matters, and most people acknowledge that leaders affect an organization's value. However, by just observing that a particular leader is visionary or inspiring, by focusing only on the person at the top and ignoring the larger leadership team, or by failing to assess whose leadership capability is woven into the organization's DNA, investors make simplistic and intuitive assessments of value. Enter the leadership capital index—a Moody's or Standard & Poor's (S&P) rating for leadership. A leadership capital index provides investors a way to...

From her vantage point atop the learning organization at Comcast Cable, it's easy for Martha Soehren to forget how radically different things were only six years ago. That was before she and her team tapped a hidden wellspring of support from within senior management to help centralize their far-reaching learning operation. Little has remained the same. Today's Comcast University has been reconceived for maximum effectiveness—its 550 learning and development professionals divided among five colleges, one for each business function. Its 5 million hours of annual...

The scale of change we will encounter during the next decade will surpass that of the past half-century, according to scientists and futurists. Although we have been talking about the "increasing pace of change" for more than 20 years, the pervasiveness of this disruptive change is now unprecedented. Leading well, gaining followership, and delivering results in the next 10 years—in which change, volatility, and industry disruption are the constant, and periods of stability and predictability are unusual—will be the challenge that underlies all else for executives...

The argument: Improve the leadership selection process rather than focus on development. How does your organization build its leadership bench strength? Many talent development professionals back the notion that it is critical to put in place tools and processes that identify and select people with leadership potential. Meanwhile, others wager that it's more effective—and predictable—to invest resources in developing internal candidates. Two thought leaders share their contrasting viewpoints on the topic.

Evaluate leadership development programs all the way to impact and ROI. Measuring the Success of Leadership Development offers a proven methodology that will help you step up to the challenge.

Today, there are more turbulent changes than everand they happen faster, so everyone has to quickly adjust. In More Turbulent Change, you learn early warning signs to detect change, common reactions, and new ways to face workplace change.