Do not mistake your Pedagogy for your Andragogy

Andragogy is not only a word you can throw into conversations to impress and confuse your friends, it is a concept that all trainers should know about. Andragogy describes the adult learning process versus pedagogy, which describes how children learn—the two processes are quite different. Those of us responsible for training adults need to understand [...]

Employee Discretion – Another Way of Looking at Empowerment

There is a lot of talk these days about empowering employees to get the job done. To “empower” someone is to give or delegate power or authority to them—as in “She authorized her assistant to sign the papers”.
In the UK they tend to use the term “discretion” rather than “empowerment”. Discretion relates to individual judgment [...]

Are Hierarchies Obsolete in Today’s Dynamic Business World?

Several hundred large organizations around the world have applied an approach to organizing themselves called “Requisite Organization Theory”. This includes over 20 of Business Week’s “Most Admired U.S. Companies”. And yet you have probably never heard of it? This is not surprising as Requisite Organization Theory is not generally taught in US business schools and [...]

Trust: The Foundation for High Performing Teams

Trust is the foundation of great teamwork and a prerequisite for developing high performing teams. Trust is the confidence among team members that:

Their team colleague’s intentions are good—even when they disagree

There is no reason to be protective or careful in what they say or do in the team setting

They are comfortable being vulnerable with [...]

Talent Management Lessons from American Idol

Well here we are again—a new season of American Idol (sans Paula Abdul) and the hordes of hopefuls are lining up for hours—most with no hope of getting to Hollywood. Based on a very unscientific analysis I have developed the following hypotheses regarding American Idol as it applies to Talent Management:

You need to screen [...]

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