Hi folks:

A new book project that we are working on for 2010 is a book about using social media for business success. The author for this book, Darin Hartley, just started a blog at http://soc-net-for-biz.blogspot.com/ to solicit content from you, John and Jane Q Public, to put in the book. So if you have any interesting stories, case studies, examples, etc., to share, get on over to his blog and let him know about it.

This is actually sort of a first stab at getting you, the reader, involved in co-creating ASTD content. One of the things that we are trying to do here in the Press is to forge a stronger connection with our audience and create a community, so please feel free to contact us and let us know what you are thinking, what you think that we should be covering, and so forth. Obviously, we won't be able to cover everything, but it does gives us the chance to hear more directly from you about what you would like to read about.

 

 

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Now, I've been known to get bogged down in editorial details, raging on about inappropriate commas, obsessing over inconsistent numbering of tables and figures, despairing that a book published with an incorrect running head, fuming over passive voice, walking the streets wild-eyed and muttering "the gerund, the gerund!" Well, maybe not that last bit, but you get the point: I am a picky editor who at times cares too much about minutiae.

That said, here's a story I heard that made me furious. Once upon a time, there was an editor who received a typeset manuscript that was red with markups. In response to these bloody proofs, the editor said something along the lines of "Look, we are not getting into the nitty gritty here. No one is looking at those things anyway."

Well...where do I start? I have so much to say about this statement and about this attitude in general. Do I start with, "YES WE ARE PICKING NITS HERE! WE ARE EDITORS!" Probably not. Yelling isn't usually very productive.

OK, so let me start again. This statement makes me particularly steamed because it involves the failure of an editor to recognize the importance of getting details right. Rebelling against editorial and typographical rules does not result in liberation and time savings; it results in poor quality, failure to communicate, and loss of credibility. It means that we don't respect the author and we don't respect our customer, the reader, enough to convey ideas and information with clarity, precision, and elegance.

I think the statement also rankles because it suggests that those of us who do care about getting details right are slow, doddering, old fuddy-duddies who are too unhip to grasp today's need for speed. Well, I get the need for speed. Or do I? We always hear that the world keeps changing faster and faster, and we have to keep up. But speed too often trumps quality and value--and that's especially true in editorial. What if we slowed down a little and got it right? Did it well? Would we really lose so much?  

 

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Elaine's newest book (which will be available for purchase from ASTD Press on July 25!) is at the printer, and the proofs looked good, so we are pretty excited to see that come in. In the meantime, you can get a sneak preview of a sample chapter from the book here.

 

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I just picked the July issue of Infoline out of my inbox to skim through and found myself reading the entire issue cover to cover. "Lead the Green Evolution" by Katherine Holt, Tom Bepler, Kate Grace MacElveen, and Carol Stoner is a good issue for people interested getting started on a greener path, both as individuals and as a leaders within their organizations (both with and without formal authority). This Infoline suggests a lot of small and big initiatives that can have an impact on slowing and perhaps eventually reversing climate change.

As the authors point out, going green is currently trendy, but it's really a much more important and fundamental change in our way of life--one that needs to take place if we want a livable planet. I frequently read or hear in the news that the huge changes needed to slow climate and reverse climate change are impossible over such short periods of time, but I don't buy it. Think about the radical and extremely fast retooling of the American industrial system needed to respond to World War II. Or what the changes that have taken place in the way that people do business because of technologies ranging from personal computers to the Internet to Twitter and iPhones? We can change fast if we want to change.

Anyway, this is an issue I care about, even though I haven't made as much personal progress on going green as I would like (although I try to make inroads all the time), so I am liable to get soap-boxy about it, but the Infoline is not soap-boxy at all; in fact, it provides some very good incentives for going green, including saving money, attracting and retaining talent, and attracting customers, as well as a lot of ideas for ways to implement greener business practices. So why not check it out? And in keeping with the green theme: Why not get it as a PDF?

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So, the day has nearly arrived: Elaine Biech's latest opus, ASTD's Ultimate Train the Trainer, is nearly ready for the printer. It has not been an easy book to work on, for a variety of reasons, but in the end it's a project that I feel proud of and that will ultimately be a real gem for the people who use it. One of the reasons it's been hard to work on is trying to make it as easy and user friendly as possible. Sometimes that requires a lot of work and thought from authors, editors, project managers, and designers (and a lot of disagreement about how best to accomplish that goal). But it's coming together. Those last bits and bobs are being fixed, the finishing touches are being added, and next Friday this book goes to press.

It's been a complicated book to put together, but it's not a complicated book to use, or at least that's the plan. What it does is provide a complete, three-day train-the-trainer workshop in five modules that generally align with the ADDIE model. It gives the trainer who needs to train trainers everything he or she could need: step-by-step instructions for activities, handouts for participants, checklists for getting prepared for the session, evaluation forms, PowerPoint slides, and more. All the stuff that the trainer will need to have on hand in the training room is provided on the CD, so he or she doesn't need to spend hours copying pages out of the book or recreating handouts from scratch.

And of course, it's from Elaine Biech! She's spent a lot of time perfecting the way she delivers training and is more than willing to share what she knows works.  

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Oh well, so much for good intentions. I had planned to blog from the ASTD 2009 International Conference & Exposition, but working in the store is quite a whirlwind experience. It was a lot of hard work as well as a blast. For those of you who attended the conference and stopped by the store, I thought you might think it was fun to see what it looks like before we transform it into the glorious Barnes-and-Noble-esque wonder that it is, so here are some pics from setup:

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So it took a little convincing, but Elaine Biech, one of ASTD Press's favorite authors and an overall champion and supporter of ASTD, has agreed to blog for ASTD and has posted her first entry! Before starting, she came up with a list of exciting topics that she wants to cover as she blogs for us to make sure that she "had enough to talk about." As though there were any doubts about Elaine's ability to contribute to the discussion. Anyway, I am really excited to see learn what she has to say and look forward to her entries.

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I'm reviewing Larry Israelite's manuscript for his forthcoming book Talent Management: Best Practices and Strategies for Success from Six Leading Companies, and "at the risk of biting the hand that feeds" him says that he feels that ASTD's definition of talent management is too complex:

ASTD's definition (as published in the "ASTD Talent Management Practices and Opportunities" research report): "A holistic approach to optimizing human capital, which enables an organization to drive short- and long-term results by building culture, engagement, capability, and capacity through integrated talent acquisition, development, and deployment processes that are aligned to business goals."

Larry's definition: "The collection of things companies do that help employees do the best they can each and every day in support of their own and the company's goals and objectives."

Now these are very different definitions. One has 38 words, the other has 29. One uses terms like "holistic approach," "optimizing human capital," and "integrated talent acquisition"; while the other talks about helping people "do the best they can." They obviously have different audiences: The ASTD definition is geared toward specialized professionals who use specialized language, while Larry's definition is geared toward anyone who works. And that last difference is part of Larry's point: talent management is not the sole domain of human resources professionals, but really belongs to everyone.

So what is talent management? Does it belong to everyone, or should it mainly concern human resources professionals? What other definitions are out there? When people talk about talent management, are they talking about the same things? It's a hot topic these days, but why does it matter? Does it matter more or less now given the difficult state of the economy? Any thoughts?

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Yesterday, we had a great meeting with Elaine Biech to start talking about a new project that we are planning for next year: a Leadership Handbook. Having worked on the ASTD Handbook for Workplace Learning Professionals, I am excited to get the chance to expand that product into new areas (we are also working with Patti Phillips on a Handbook for measuring and evaluating, but I will talk more about that in another post where I will also introduce her forthcoming blog).

Some of the ideas we tossed around in the meeting included at least three sections (development, characteristics/competencies, and tasks or roles of leadership). We came up with a huge list of potential contributors. We also thought about opening up the scope of the book to include chapters on leadership that focused on the military, politics, global politics, the ministry, as well as specific business sectors such as financial, healthcare, and so forth. As a bit of a news junky, the idea of opening up the scope like that sounds like big, juicy, exciting fun. (At least, until we get into the nitty gritty of editing, proofreading, managing the schedule, bugging the authors for answers to queries, and so forth!)

At present, no outline exists, the topic list is wide open, and only a loose timeline is in place. Those of us who attended the meeting have been tasked with coming up with five to six contributor names or topics to give Elaine as fodder for her ideas, so I thought I would cheat a little and see if any of you have any thoughts on what you'd like to see covered in a Handbook on Leadership. 

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Well, it's been a tough week here in Books world and, despite some glimmers of improvement, the going is still tough out there in the big world. One quality that can really help people weather hard times is emotional intelligence. It's a quality that can be found in some of the strangest places and in the most unexpected people, which is the point of an article that I wrote for T+D back in December 2004, which I am attaching here for your reading pleasure. And yes, it really is about Ghengis Khan! 

76041271, December 2004.pdf (40.11 kb)

 

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