ProfessionalResources

Professional Resources

Obsolete Skills, do you have them?

Robert Scoble came up with the idea in a recent blog post to make a list of 'obsolete skills.' He describes these skills as things we used to know that no longer are very useful to us, and provided few examples including:

The community has started to create a much larger list of these obsolete skills, check out the full A-Z list. Feel free to contribute more if you can, and if you have the time, please make a page with a short description of the skill.

Some content on this wiki was copied from http://obsoleteskills.wikispot.org with permission.

2nd Annual Emotional Intelligence and Personal Success Conference, Anderson University, Anderson, IN, April 7-11, 2008, Brochure for more information.

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At the ASTD 2008 ICE Conference in San Diego, Patrick Lencioni, author of The New York Times best-selling, Amazon Top 100 title, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, will be one of the key note speakers.

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Reshaping the Learning Function to Bridge Talent Gap

Training executives share new approaches by Josh Bersin

Analyze This!
By Ryan Sparks New web analytics software enables e-learning developers to see what is working...and what's not.

Delta L Training offers a series of tours of Second Life that provide an overview and demonstrate projects that were done in SL by Delta L and others.

http://www.deltaltraining.com/second_life_tour_signup.htm

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Learning Circuits Blog	Tackles the big questions. http://learningcircuits.blogspot.com/2007/02/february-big-question-what-questions.html

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The old adage, "if you aren't learning, you're already behind," is still current today because change occurs so rapidly in the global business arena. Business-thought specialist Gary Hamel says it is crucial to invest in people in order to boost company share prices and earnings. Hamel believes that a company's workers are the ones who generate ideas and are the true source of value. But many smaller and mid-sized firms and organizations do not regard training and development as necessary, and those that do allocate training dollars often eliminate them during challenging times. Investment in training and development provides such benefits a rise in overall quality, more productivity and timeliness per worker, and improved customer service and staff relations. Cross-training is a way to let employees widen their capabilities, thus boosting their value to the organization. They also become more self-confident and motivated, and may gain a better understanding of operations and decision making. Companies can also evaluate the monetary value resulting from time saved due to the reduced need to supervise, improved time management, reduced operating time, and shorter lead time to acquire skills.
Killing the Commute: Technology Fuels 'Teleworking' Trend
Capital (Annapolis, MD) (06/07/07) , P. A6; Arcieri, Katie

World at Work reports a jump in the number of employees nationwide working outside the office one or more days per month to 12.4 million in 2006 from 7.6 million in 2004. Marcia Rhodes, spokeswoman for the Scottsdale, Ariz.-based association, says more employers are gauging productivity based not on office hours but performance, adding that they "are starting to see that people don't just work for a paycheck anymore." Technology--particularly the Internet--is driving the trend. Employees reap the benefits of lower gas costs, less stress, and more time at home with their families, while employers benefit from having happier employees and being able to shrink office space. However, experts say telecommuting is not suitable for all industries and positions; and workers must be motivated, tech savvy, and not vulnerable to distraction. Additionally, companies are urged to impose formal telecommuting policies that spell out who is eligible, how performance and productivity will be measured, and when workers must come into the office; they should cover equipment and technical support as well.

Working on Your Marriage - at Work
Wall Street Journal Online (05/31/07) , P. D1; Silverman, Rachel Emma

In a recent trend, a steadily increasing number of businesses are offering instructional courses to aid their staff members in building better personal relationships. Companies are offering free relationship training at retreats, lunchtime sessions on better ways for workers to relate to their partners, and audio classes for commuting employees. Although some of these classes are directed at strengthening marriages, many businesses have made sure the courses they offer remain inclusive to their single and gay or lesbian staff members. These programs are a part of employer efforts to prevent stress in their staff's personal lives from negatively impacting productivity.

The Life Coach in Your Headset
Business 2.0 (06/13/07) Vol. 8, P. 26; Blakely, Lindsay

Business 2.0 named the new program, Personal Performance Coach, one of the top 10 up and coming products in the life coach market. The new software was created by the consulting firm Accenture to provide constant advice for ambitious executives. The program operates on a Windows based smartphone. It can be adapted to feed advice on every topic from conversation skills to health and fitness directly into the consumer's Bluetooth. The conversation coach, for example, monitors how much it hears the user's voice during a meeting and may whisper "talk less" if they are dominating the conversation or interrupting other participants.

Filling the Talent Gap
Chief Executive (05/07) , P. 22; Appel, Andrew

The looming worldwide talent shortage continues to push companies to find novel ways to prepare for talent shortages induced by the aging populations in developed nations and the dearth of experienced managers in developing countries. Moreover, in the 21st century, 60 percent of new jobs will demand skills currently held by only 22 percent of American workers. In response, companies should conduct a work force audit to assess their talent gap and should manage their talent pipelines to ensure a sufficient supply of skilled workers. To develop their workforce, organizations need to prioritize retention, plan for executive succession, link performance to total rewards, and reduce turnover by offering applicants realistic job previews. In addition, the best companies are using health care and retirement benefits to influence workers' employment decisions and to improve both productivity and economic success. Comprehensive wellness programs and on-site counseling are two new methods of improving care while managing health care costs. When developing retirement benefits, companies should aim to protect aging employees, provide retirement programs, and handle the inherent risk in offering new retirement paths for workers.