And the final recipe in our 12 Days Of Holiday Recipes comes from Langevin CEO, Mr. Ralph Langevin himself! It’s the Recipe for Successful Learning! C’mon, you didn’t really think we’d steer away from training completely, did you?!

Ralph

Did you miss a recipe?

First day of recipes: Potato Latkes
Second day of recipes: Apple Crisp
Third day of recipes: Chili
Fourth day of recipes: Salad
Fifth day of recipes: Glazed Pecans
Sixth day of recipes: Holiday Chicken
Seventh day of recipes: Christmas Punch
Eighth day of recipes: Counter Cake
Ninth day of recipes: Holiday Hummus
Tenth day of recipes: Boiled Custard
Eleventh day of recipes: Chocolate Biscotti

This year saw the release of two new products—the Project Management for Trainers and Mama Told Me There’d Be Days Like This resource kits—as well as an expansion of our social media presence.  Not only are we engaged in on-going industry-related discussions in our Langevin Alumni Group on Linkedin, but we are also sharing a variety of valuable resources, links, and tips for trainers on Twitter.  Our instructor blogs appear on our website twice weekly and have earned a regular following of faithful readers.  In early 2011 we plan to launch our official Langevin Facebook page so keep an eye out for an announcement in the coming weeks!

In addition, we launched a new feature on our website to help our current and future clients meet their training needs: our new live chat support.  Now clients can browse our website and chat live with one of our knowledgeable client service representatives directly from our website.

Exciting stuff, isn’t it?!  We’re so pleased with your response to our foray into the world of social media and are loving the exchange of ideas and resources that has been generated by these online tools.  We welcome your ideas and suggestions as to how we can improve upon these interactive communities in the coming year.  By all means, tell us what you’d like to see!

2011 promises to be filled with more exciting products, services, and contests from the World’s Largest Train-the-Trainer Company.  Thanks, once again, to our loyal clients for your contributions to our success, and thanks to our top-notch instructors, instructional designers, client service representatives, and office support staff for helping us to maintain our reputation as the best in the biz!

Happy holidays to you and yours and best wishes for the coming year!

Ralph

A Tweet

Hi Joe, “I’m eating some “killer” cheesecake at the new XYZ restaurant that just opened on Main Street.  The food’s delish, you’ve gotta try it!”

Ralph

Welcome to the world of social networking! What exactly is social networking? Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc. – these are all internet-based tools used to communicate with people. They have become the standard means of sharing our lives – the joys, the sorrows, the funny times, as well as the ordinary occurrences of life – with others.

But we’re trainers, so the question we need to ask ourselves is, “How can we use social networking to enhance our training?”

Research shows that as much as 80% of job learning occurs informally. While the traditional classroom will never fade away, we need to think of how we can blend other devices that will meet the needs of a new, and yes, younger workforce.

Let’s look at three examples of how social networking can be used before and after training:

1. Send an email, with a discussion board, to a group of learners before a class, asking them what their main goal(s) is for the class. This information can be invaluable for both the designer and the facilitator when it comes to customizing the program to meet the needs of the learners. This will also motivate the class in advance.
2. Create an internal corporate LinkedIn account for those who took a training program. The participants can share best practices and discuss how they are using what they learned in class back on the job.
3. With the rapid retirement of the baby-boomer generation impacting corporations, it is critical to tap into the expertise of tenured employees before they retire. To avoid this “brain drain” set up a company-wide Facebook account where employees can share experience and best work practices. Create a topic a week and provide incentives for people to contribute. Creating a learning organization where people share valuable knowledge and experience, must become part of a company’s culture.

See how easy, yet powerful, these examples are? Try some social networking yourself – and share your experiences with the rest of us. As Mikey, from the Life cereals TV commercials would say, “Try it, you’ll like it.”

Ooops, gotta go, I feel another tweet coming on…

Ralph

I know what you are thinking, “What are you talking about Ralph?”

I’m talking about those days or moments in the classroom we’ve all experienced and dreaded. Those times when we have had a difficult participant (or many) to deal with. It seems there is always at least one in every group, doesn’t it? We’ve all developed some strategies to deal with, or cope with, difficult participants but we’ve also all had our share of situations when those strategies simply did not work.

I have been reflecting on my classroom experiences lately and jotting down some of my more memorable moments dealing with difficult participants. If I’d had a more well-rounded set of strategies and techniques to refer to, I would not have only been better prepared to deal with just about any challenging situation, I would have been able to prevent a good number of them from happening.

So, just for you, we have taken the experience and knowledge from our world-class course leaders (and me, of course!), and combined it into a fantastic resource called Mama Told Me There’d Be Days Like This: How to Deal With Difficult Participants that will provide you with a simple, straightforward approach to deal with just about every negative participant behavior you will ever encounter.

Too good to be true, you might be thinking. Well, maybe it does sound too good to be true. So, as just a little preview, our next series of blogs will feature real-life stories and anecdotes as our course leaders offer up some advice, tips, and techniques, as they recount some of the enlightening and sometimes humorous situations they have experienced while dealing with difficult participants.

This new product will be available early in the New Year, but in the meantime, take the time to review the details of Mama Told Me There’d Be Days Like This: How to Deal With Difficult Participants.

I hope you all enjoy this joyous holiday season and I hope we will see you at one of our workshops in the New Year.  And remember, always listen to your Mama…

Ralph

I’ve never been shy about telling you that our course leaders are the best part of Langevin and the main reason for our success.  To this point, you would have had to have taken one of our workshops to know what I mean or you’d simply have to take my word for it!  But now, you’ll be able to experience our world-class course leaders before, during, and after any workshop, simply by following their blog posts here.

With such a knowledgeable and experienced group of course leaders posting to this blog, along with your own valuable comments and contributions, there certainly won’t be a shortage of timely, interesting, and relevant topics available for any training professional.

Whether you choose to follow the entire blog, your favorite course leader’s blog, or even just a blog category, I guarantee it will make it to the top of your weekly “must-read” list.

I sincerely hope you enjoy this newest addition to the Langevin website and please don’t hesitate to give us your feedback.

Ralph