Lisa Nichols

March 2024 - TD Magazine

Procrastination is costly; find out why you’re failing to act.

Why Wait?

The Association for Talent Development honored 36 organizations from Canada, Denmark, India, Scotland, Taiwan, and the United States as winners in the 2016 BEST Awards. Maersk Line – AP Møller Maersk, headquartered in Copenhagen, Denmark, won the first place ranking. TELUS and Wipro, received ATD’s Best of the BEST award. The Best of the BEST award goes to organizations who win the BEST award 10 or more times. Companies were recognized during a ceremony held at the Ronald Regan Building and International Trade Center in Washington, D.C.“These 36 companies set a high standard for the talent development profession. They are solving business challenges through talent development practices, and they are doing it in innovative ways,” said Tony Bingham, ATD President and CEO. “Leaders in these organizations understand the strategic role learning has, and they are committed to investing in the growth and development of their people.”ATD’s BEST Award is the talent development industry’s most rigorous and coveted recognition. The program recognizes organizations that demonstrate enterprise-wide success through talent development.The 2016 BEST Award winners shared their best practices at the Learn from the BEST conference preceding the ceremony and are recognized in a special section of the October issue of TD, ATD’s flagship magazine.ATD received entries from nearly 150 organizations in 13 countries. These organizations submitted quantitative and qualitative information to ATD about their talent development practices and programs. Applications were assessed in a rigorous blind review by members of the BEST Awards advisory committee, a group of experts in the field. The 2016 BEST Award rankings: Maersk Line – AP Møller Maersk, Copenhagen, DenmarkHilton Worldwide, McLean, VirginiaMillerCoors, Milwaukee, WisconsinCathay Life Insurance, Taipei, TaiwanMindtree Limited, Bangalore, IndiaITU AbsorbTech, New Berlin, WisconsinICICI Lombard General Insurance Company Ltd., Mumbai, IndiaTata Consultancy Services, Mumbai, IndiaConsumers Energy, Jackson, MichiganCerner Corporation, Kansas City, MissouriResource Residential, Philadelphia, PennsylvaniaThe Aerospace Corporation, El Segundo, CaliforniaFlorida Blue, Jacksonville, FloridaEnterprise Holdings, St. Louis, MissouriUL LLC, Northbrook, IllinoisBNSF Railway Co., Fort Worth, TexasVerizon, New York, New YorkJK Lakshmi Cement Ltd., New Delhi, IndiaSaunders Construction, Inc., Centennial, ColoradoIBM, Armonk, New YorkUST Global, Aliso Viejo, CaliforniaPersistent Systems Ltd., Pune, IndiaWipro Limited, Bangalore, IndiaUniversity Health System, San Antonio, TexasValvoline Instant Oil Change, Lexington, KentuckyWestern Union, Englewood, ColoradoCA Technologies, New York, New YorkFreese and Nichols, Inc., Fort Worth, TexasMWH Global, now part of Stantec, Broomfield, ColoradoAsurion, Nashville, TennesseeBridgepoint Education, San Diego, CaliforniaKimberly Clark Professional, Roswell, GeorgiaLupin Limited, Mumbai, IndiaHitachi Data Systems, Santa Clara, CaliforniaInsights Learning & Development, Dundee, ScotlandBest of the BEST - second year: TELUSIn addition, 11 companies on this list have been BEST Award winners for three years or more. They are:  Cerner Corporation, Hilton Worldwide, IBM, ICICI Lombard General Insurance, Mindtree Limited, Tata Consultancy Services, TELUS, University Health System, Valvoline Instant Oil Change, Verizon, and Wipro Ltd.More information about the 2016 BEST Award winners may be found in the October 2016 issue of TD magazine. Details about the 2017 program will be available in January 2017.ATD thanks program sponsor Inkling for supporting excellence in talent development.  About ATDThe Association for Talent Development (ATD) is the world’s largest professional membership organization supporting those who develop the knowledge and skills of employees, improve performance, and help to achieve results for the organizations they serve. Originally established in 1943, the association was previously known as the American Society for Training & Development (ASTD). ATD’s members come from more than 120 countries and work in public and private organizations in every industry sector. ATD supports talent development professionals who gather locally in volunteer-led U.S. chapters and international member networks, and with international strategic partners. For more information, visit www.td.org.

ATD Announces 36 Winners in 2016 BEST Awards

Two years ago today, a post to a quite little blog rocked the training and development world. The quiet little blog was Learning Circuits Blog and the post was by Sam Adkins. In his post entitled "We are the Problem: We're Selling Snake Oil, Sam outlined how much of what eLearning had set out to accomplish and had claimed to have accomplished was all "snake oil."His post angered and scared many. But it also intrigued and emboldened many others who saw a need for our profession to change. Emails were sent to colleagues saying 'you've got to go read this article.' Passions ignited to protect training/learning professionals or to tear them down. Blame was spread around to everyone - it was the vendors/designers/theorists/customers/our/the technology's fault - depending on who was commenting.When it was all said and done, there were 60 comments in reaction to Sam's "Snake Oil" post. To put this in perspective, the other 283 posts to Learning Circuits Blog between May 2002 and the end of October 2005 have averaged 3.19 comments per post. The list of commentors includes many of the thought leaders in our industry - Jay Cross, David Grebow, C. Michael Hecht, Tom Abele, Godfrey Parkin, Fred Nickols, Jerry Ash, Diana Royce Smith, etc.What did he say? What was the reaction? Has it had any impact in the past two years? How does Sam feel now? These are all questions we will be answering in Learning Circuits Blog's first Beyond the Blog.In a comment on November 19, 2005; Andrew Williams wrote, "hopefully we will all look back on this provocation/post in a couple of years and view this as an inflection point in the industry." All too often, we don't come back to reflect on key moments. But that's exactly what we will do in the next couple of weeks with your help.Here's what you can expect from Beyond the Blog over the next week:Today - This general introduction to the Snake Oil Revisited Beyond the Blog11/18 (Fri) - Revisit Sam's post11/28 (Mon) - Revisit the comments and the themes that arose through them11/29 (Tues) - Are we still selling snake oil? Over the past two years have things improved? worsened?11/30 (Weds) - Launch of thematic discussion wikis focusing on the themesEach of the discussion wikis will be moderated by a member of the LCB Blog Squad.From that point on, Beyond the Blog: Snake Oil Revisited will live as long as the discussions continue to develop. We'll give you opportunities to vote in mini polls, create mini panel sessions, present content - text, graphic or podcasts to enhance the debates - whatever is doable and makes the debate more robust. We'll be tracking all the activity in the summary box in the sidebar of LCB. And if you see the value in this debate and want your friends and colleagues to know about it, we will even have a Beyond the Blog: Snake Oil Revisited logo that you can cut and paste onto your own website.It is our hope that you will feel free to jump into what should be a collection of spirited discussions about what we have been, what were today and what we will or won't be as a profession in the future. It's our hunch that by the time that glittery ball drops in Times Square in six weeks or so, we all will have learned something about ourselves, our colleagues, and perhaps what the new year holds for us.