Last week, schoolyard bully Amazon pounded on plucky Macmillan Publishers by disabling the buy buttons on nearly all editions of all its books, thus cutting off access to one of the publisher’s and its authors’ biggest markets. Why? Because Macmillan had the temerity to tell Amazon that it would provide access to its ebooks only if it switched to an agency model in which Amazon would make 30 percent of the proceeds of ebooks and Macmillan would set the prices (up to $15 per title). (Amazon wants to cap the price of ebooks at $9.99 and stick with its current model of buying at 50 percent of publisher cost and setting its own price.)

The media reaction to this event was generally to cast Amazon in the role of bully (for a sample, see this article from Fast Company) and thus Amazon was forced to back down.

The entire event set off a lot of talk about a prominent issue in the book industry: what is a fair price for ebooks? They are still pretty new, so no one really knows for sure what makes sense. The assumption has been that they don't really cost much to make, but that's not completely accurate (for a discussion of the costs of making books, check out Tobias Buckell's thorough discussion on his blog.). Amazon has been willing to operate its ebook business at a loss for a few years in order to dominate the market, but now all of a sudden here comes Apple’s iPad and iBooks and all bets are off. The entry of the iPad and iBooks suggests the potential for a fairer share of ebook proceeds for publishers and for authors, although at first glance it may seem to come at a loss for consumers. But does it? Cheaper isn't always better if you want to create the conditions that allow authors and publishers to thrive and publish books that matter. Clearly the Author's Guild thinks this is an important fight for the future quality of the publishing industry. To read their take on it, check out this article.

At any rate, the verdict on the pricing structure for ebooks is still out. I'll be interested to see how things shake out.

Tags: books, astd press, ipad, ibooks, kindle, amazon, macmillan

Categories: Books

So I am working on editing Darin Hartley's forthcoming book 10 Steps to Social Networking for Business, and I feel like I could use a break so I thought I would write a little about his book. It has a lot of good information for getting into social networking as a business, but so far his nine-step process for selecting social networking technology has struck me as one of the more useful (now I am only up to step 4, so don't assume that I am giving everything away!).

1. Identify needs based on critical business initiatives. In other words, don't just jump into social networking because it's cool. You really need to know why you are doing it.
2. Estabish a core decision-making team. When you are trying to decide whether or not to use off-the-shelf social networking technologies (such as Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, Twitter, and so forth) or to build a custom system, make sure that you've got the right people involved. Hint: One of those people should be someone from your IT department!
3. Develop core functional requirements. Determine what your current systems look like so that whatever you choose to go with is compatible.
4. Develop a criteria matrix. Decide what you need (and maybe a little something you want?).
5. Establish a list of potential solution candidates.  Make a (short-ish) list of technologies that may fit your needs.
6. Review potential solutions against criteria and rank them. Well, you've got a list of possible solutions: Now look at them, figure out which ones have the most of the stuff you need and want, and then put them in order.
7. Participate in product demos with company-specific use cases. This step applies if you are seriously considering a custom system.
8. Choose the networking solution. You've got all the data you need. Now, pick something!
9. Implement your organization's social networking solution. In other words, come up with a plan for using off-the-shelf technology, or buy, modify, or build something specifically made for your organization.

So there it is. A simple process for deciding whether to get involved with social networking and deciding what technology to use. To learn more about Darin, his book, and social networking in general, check out the social network he has created over at Ning: Social Networking for Business. And go ahead and join it, why don't you? He had a contest a while back where the person who brought the greatest number of new members got a prize. Let him know I sent you. I could use a prize!

Tags: darin hartley, hartley, social networking, astd press, astd, 10 steps, 10 steps to social networking

Categories: Books

In Talent Management, contributor Nigel Paine paints a portrait of an exciting new world of work: “Most industrial economies will have extraordinary numbers of people working in areas that involve breakthroughs, are breathtaking, and are astonishing. Hundreds of thousands of employees will be working on projects that have no precedent and that, in their own small way, will change the world. And the only way that this will be possible will be to mobilize the brainpower employed and to understand talent, thoroughly and completely.” Wow, I can feel the heady rush of history as I type this quote.

But, there’s a problem…. Organizations that fail to shift to a talent-driven culture are not likely to experience the exciting breakthroughs that such a culture can bring and are likely to fall behind their competitors. But Paine provides 10 tips for moving toward a talent-driven culture:

• Take a holistic approach to talent in your organization. All employees should be working toward the same organizational goals, and some individual goals should overlap.
• Interpret the term “talent” widely. All staff has potential.
• Think of talent as a companywide asset, not the prerequisite of a single manager.
• Review your organization’s overall HR strategy and goals systematically.
• Check your processes. Do they align with purpose for which they were created?
• Get your organization’s board or senior management directly involved.
• Encourage knowledge sharing as an ethos in your organization.
• Explore social networking in your organization, but make sure to establish some ground rules around these tools.
• Make sure your leaders—all your leaders—know how to listen as well as talk, ask questions as well as give answers, and are willing to admit mistakes.
• Leverage the data you gather about the organization, and be willing to act on painful results.

Learn more about Talent Management and get a free sample chapter here.

Tags: talent management, talent, larry israelite, israelite, astd, astd press, new book

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In Larry Israelite’s book Talent Management, case studies from six leading companies—Cisco, McDonald’s, Avon, Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, Ciena, and Liberty Mutual—offer compelling evidence that talent management matters:

• At Cisco, talent management plays an important role in the strategy for transforming both the organization and the business.
• A corporate turnaround strategy and a series of tragedies reinforced McDonald’s need for an intense focus on talent, resulting in a strong leadership pipeline and strong business performance.
• The Avon strategy for managing talent has become a key lever in implementing the most radical restructuring process in the company’s 122-year history, resulting in significant improvement in effectiveness.
• Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta is meeting the challenge of record-breaking growth in the pediatric population through an integrated people strategy.
• Ciena Corporation demonstrates the value of a structured approach to talent management and the importance of thought leadership about learning for companies of all sizes.
• Comprehensive talent management practices have played a strategic role in the continued success Liberty Mutual Group has enjoyed for more than a decade.

For more, get chapter 1 from Talent Management.

Tags: talent management, talent, larry israelite, cisco, mcdonald's, avon, children's healthcare of atlanta, ciena, liberty mutual group, astd, astd press

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One of the big projects that I have been working on lately is the ASTD Handbook of Measuring and Evaluating Training, edited by Patti Phillips and forthcoming in 2010. A sub-project of the book is a series of interviews conducted by Rebecca Ray, an award-winning chief learning officer, with some of the legends of the field of training evaluation. These include Robert Brinkerhoff, Jac Fitz-enz, Donald Kirkpatrick, Jack Phillips, Dana Gaines Robinson, and William Rothwell. This morning we completed recording all the interviews, and they will be made available at the ASTD Handbook of Measuring and Evaluating Training webpage early in the new year. (The website will be continually updated with new content, so check back often!)

But, as an early Christmas present, we've got the interview with Donald Kirkpatrick up there now, talking about the 50th anniversary of his four levels of evaluation and many other topics. To listen, click here.

Tags: astd handbook, handbook of measuring and evaluating training, patti phillips, phillips, astd, astd press, roi, evaluation, kirkpatrick, don kirkpatrick

Categories: Books

The Washington Post has an ongoing series of articles and opinion pieces about leadership. Given that we are busily working on The ASTD Leadership Handbook, edited by Elaine Biech, today's guest insight by Matthew Stewart, a former management consultant--The Seduction of Leadership Gurus--caught my eye. After all, our book has an impressive lineup of leadership gurus, including Jim Collins, Jack Zenger, John Kotter, Dave Ulrich, Norm Smallwood, Ed Cohen, Len Goodstein, Ed Betof, and Bill Gentry (to name a few who got their chapters in early), so should we be looking at some racier covers to capture their seductive qualities? No? Oh well. Too bad. It coulda been fun.

Anyway, in his piece, Stewart talks about four lessons he's learned from reading the leadership literature that render the whole concept of leadership literature problematic:

• Great leadership isn't teachable. (Does that mean that the great number of books and seminars about leadership may be more about boosting the ego and filling the wallet of the leadership guru than about enabling people to become great leaders?) 
• Great leadership is a property of groups, not individuals. (In other words, great followers make great leaders. With too much emphasis on the individual at the top you lose sight of the importance of the people around the leader helping him or her to make the right decisions.)
• Great leadership is circumstantial. (You have to be in the right place at the right time, or else you may never become a great leader.)
• Great leadership can get ugly. (My immediate reaction to this is, if it's ugly, it's not great leadership. It's bad leadership. In some cases, it isn't leadership at all.)

If I understand his overall point correctly, he is saying that leadership literature tends to focus solely on the individual as great leader and fails to look at the entire system that creates the incubator for great leadership. Thus the reader may get some interesting stories and inspiration from leadership books and seminars, but doesn't get a blueprint for creating an environment that will allow great leadership to flourish.

These are some of my general reactions to Stewart's piece:

• What exactly is the leadership literature that he is talking about? I have come across quite a few books that discuss the setting for leadership and not just the characteristics of the individual.   
• What is the point of providing leadership training or writing books about leadership? Although there are always those who are cynically just in it for the money or to feel good about themselves, my experience with authors is that they genuinely want to share their experience in the hope that it will help someone do something better. Most of us have learned at least one lesson the hard way and would like to help others bypass that experience. Furthermore, I would argue that leadership behaviors can be learned, although becoming a great leader requires experience and practice. In that way, it is similar to painting: You can learn the basic techniques, the types of brushes to use, the characteristics of various types of thinners and pigments, but you won't become a great painter without the practice and the experience.
• I like his idea that leadership books that focus on "charismatic leaders [who] have mastered the very forces of nature and can squeeze profits out of rocks with their bare hands" isn't a good way "to develop the practices of participation and accountability that characterize those systems that are capable of producing good leadership." In other words, sole reliance on this type of leadership book, especially in a training or business school setting, may not be such a great idea. But once again, that gets us back to my first point: What are these books? There are others out there that focus on the larger picture. 

Anyway, these are just a few of my thoughts about leadership literature and Stewart's article. I have more, but am not yet fully able to articulate them. I'd like to hear what you have to say about the subject though!

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Categories: Books

A few days ago, a copy of the latest book in the Ultimate series, Ultimate Basic Business Skills: Training an Effective Workforce, landed on my desk. Like all the books in this new series, it follows a similar format as the ASTD Trainer's WorkShop series, providing everything you could possibly ask for to quickly put together a training program. It includes guidelines for designing programs, agendas, learning activities, tools, assessments, and PowerPoint slides that can be customized as well as printed for use as class handouts.

The topics of the book are the basic business skills that everyone needs to function succesfully, effectively, and efficiently in the business environment, such as customer service, basic communication, presentations, networking, conflict management, writing, problem solving, decision making, and much more. These are foundational skills that newcomers to the business environment need, but the rest of us could also use some polish on. To learn more about the book and what it provides, check out the Ultimate Basic Business Skills webpage and download the sample chapter.

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Categories: Books

I had a productive day setting up webpages for some of our forthcoming books. One of those is Brian Lambert's 10 Steps to Successful Sales. Brian is our in-house guru of all things sales related (earlier this year his book World-Class Selling: New Sales Competencies with its competency model for sales training was launched at the ASTD International Conference & Exposition in Washington, DC), and his latest book really delivers. He presents 10 steps for successful sales. To learn more about the book, check out the new 10 Steps to Successful Sales web page, which includes a sample chapter as a download, as well as Brian's own webpage devoted to the topic.

Tags: brian lambert, lambert, 10 steps, 10 steps to successful sales, sample chapter, astd, astd press, sales, sales training, world-class selling

Categories: Books

Even though I do my job pretty well and I have a great relationship with my manager, I dread that annual performance review. It just gives me an icky feeling: now it's time to talk about stuff that's not going well, or to listen to feedback about how I can do better. Even positive feedback makes me feel a little squirmy and embarrassed. So it's not something I look forward to. In terms of how I improve as a performer, it frequently leads to a lot of short-term activity surrounding the review (sort of like that short-term activity surrounding those New Year's resolutions), which then tapers off until work settles down to the usual. (Basically this sort of curve is true for a lot of activities that we do to improve performance; think about training: you attend a training event, when you are done you do lots of things to try to apply it, and then things slowly settle down again. Maybe a few things stick, but a lot goes by the wayside and isn't that frustrating?)

Anyway, back to the performance review: I guess that I am not alone in feeling pretty uncomfortable about the annual review. I certainly know that Jeffrey and Linda Russell, authors of Ultimate Performance Management, a new book that addresses just this topic, do. So they came up with a solution, a new way to approach to managing performance that goes way beyond the annual check-the-box performance review. They came up with the Great Performance Management Cycle and the concept of performance coaching conversations. These are ongoing processes that enable employees like me to get better and better at their jobs and allow managers like my awesome boss (I know, I am totally sucking up, aren't I?) to get better and better results from their people.

I am not going to explain this cycle though, I am going to let the authors do it themselves in the sample chapter that's available on their book webpage. Now, this sample chapter is unusually long and I argued with myself a while before putting it up there, but I think the contents are really interesting while the real value of the book is in the application. Ultimate Performance Management provides everything you need to know to assess, implement, and train people on this way of improving people's performance. You get all you need to be able to put on five workshops, including learning activities, tools, handouts, training instruments, as well as processes and procedures. This is a book that has real potential to improve the ways that people work, so check out the sample and see what you think.

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Categories: Books

So, Twitter. Twitter, Twitter, Twitter. Tweet. Tweet. Tweet. 

What do you do with it? I am still trying to figure it out. I sort of get it, but then I don't. As a member and employee of an organization that aims to lead the profession, it's part of my job to try to figure it out. Thing is, it's pretty new, so its potential is not fully explored yet. What does that mean? It means that any smart, creative, innovative (and potentially unscrupulous) person can come up with a new way to use it. That's always exciting. And it's overwhelming.

An article at Time.com lists 10 ways that businesses can use Twitter, including marketing and advertising, getting (and affecting) stock prices, providing news, getting consumer data, disseminating content, and more. Jeanne Meister has talked about several ways that companies can use Twitter on her blog, including as a recruiting tool.

One of the most enjoyable applications of Twitter that I have come across is the line-by-line retelling of the Indian epic the Mahabharata (@epicretold), which is great for geeky ancient literature lovers like myself, but also suggests other applications such as providing training tips and tools, introducing the contents of a new book, and so on.

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Categories: Books