Every week, I review blogs that cover talent development to find the very best talent development posts. This week, you’ll find pointers to pieces about Kirkpatrick training evaluation, leadership development trends, and integrating talent acquisition and development. There are also pointers to relevant carnivals and lists.
From Stephen J. Gill: Kirkpatrick’s Four Levels of Training Evaluation: A Critique
“At the end of Dan McCarthy’s blog post, “How to Evaluate a Training Programâ€, in which he explains his pre-post, survey approach to applying the Kirkpatrick four levels of training evaluation, he asks: Has anyone used a system like this, or something better? What do you think, is it worth the bother? Since McCarthy asked, here is my response.”
Wally’s Comment: Last week I pointed you to Dan McCarthy’s post, “How to Evaluate a Training Program.” Dan shared some guidelines but asked for other opinions on using the Kirkpatrick levels of training evaluation. This excellent post by Stephen J. Gill responds to Dan’s post. It’s thorough, thoughtful, and knowledgeable.
From AMA: Best Companies Pursue Global Leadership Programs
“High-performing companies are aggressively pursuing global leadership development programs, according to a new study of more than 1,700 organizations in more than 20 industries on six continents by the American Management Association (AMA). Fifty-eight percent of high-performing companies have introduced some form of global leadership development program compared to 34% of low-performing organizations in the study.”
Wally’s Comment: The key here is the AMA’s consideration of what’s different when you talk about global organizations compared with “multi-national” organizations.
“A successful leader thinks outside the box on occasion. To tap into that mindset, some leadership programs are taking top talent out of the office and into a burning building, an improv or concert stage, or even a beach in Normandy. “
Wally’s Comment: Some of the programs described in this report strike me as adventure vacations disguised as training. I consider the amount spent on them to be a scandal when the majority of first line managers get NO management training. Even if you share my views, this article is worth your time because it surveys current practice and can be a great source of ideas.
“Companies like General Electric, PepsiCo, and Colgate-Palmolive are justly recognized for their ability to turn out top-notch business executives in a predictable way. Over the years, scores of companies have tried to benchmark and emulate these companies’ success in executive development — but often become disillusioned by how hard it is to instill the “talent mindset†culture these firms have achieved. And in the course of their benchmarking efforts, talent management professionals are often surprised to learn that the GEs, PepsiCos (speaking Sept. 8 at ERE), and Colgates of the world are as committed to external recruiting as they are to talent development. They shouldn’t be.”
Wally’s Comment: John Beeson points out that the key practice that separates companies known for excellent leadership development and succession planning is that they integrate all the pieces.
Carnivals, Lists, and Such
The Latest HR Carnival at Jon Ingham’s Strategic HCM Blog
From HR Web Cafe: News briefs: DOL app, zombie apocalypse, PTO, Milliman Medical Index & more
From HR Examiner: Top 25 Online Influencers in Talent Management v3 for 2011
Look at the number three spot. That’s where you’ll find me and this blog. Thanks to HR Examiner for doing the grunt work of pulling this list together.
