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Denver White is a proven leader of training teams, specializing in sales, technical, and leadership skills training. With more than 17 years of training industry experience, he has introduced new training technologies and modern adult learning to companies across the United States and Asia to increase revenue and employee efficiency. Prior to his work with AOL, Denver managed training projects for companies, such as Yahoo!, The Washington Post (WPNI), and Wolters Kluwer. As a consultant, Denver has spearheaded training for Fortune 500 companies and the UN.

Denver White

Sales Research on the Fly

Enabling Value-Based Selling

Individuals who have recently received a PhD may be eligible for the ATD Dissertation Award. Additionally, ATD offers students the opportunity to further their professional development by applying for a membership or conference scholarship.**ATD Dissertation Award (PhD Graduates)**PhD graduates whose degrees are received between August 1, 2014, and September 30, 2015, are encouraged to apply for the ATD Dissertation Award. This award is given to foster and disseminate research in the practice of talent development. The deadline to apply is November 20, 2015. Click here to learn more about the guidelines for submission.The study must focus on relevant issues of relevance to the practice of developing talent in organizations. Illustrative areas of concentration include:training and development·organizational development and learningperformance improvement and analysiswork designcareer developmenthuman resource planning.Student ScholarshipsStudents in a doctoral, graduate, or undergraduate program are encouraged to apply for the John Coné ATD Membership Scholarship, ATD International Conference & Exposition Registration Scholarship, and the ATD Essentials Series Workshop Scholarship. Applicants should be current students at the time of submitting the application. There is one online application for all scholarships, which will open on August 15. The deadline to apply is November 15, 2015.Eight students will be selected to win the scholarships.ATD International Conference & Exposition Registration Scholarship: One winner will receive a complimentary full conference registration to attend the ATD 2016 International Conference & Exposition in Denver, Colorado, May 22-25.ATD Essentials Series Workshop Scholarship: One winner will receive a complimentary registration to the Essentials workshop of their choice. Access a list of currently offered Essentials Series programs.John Coné ATD Membership Scholarship: Six winners will receive one year of Professional Plus membership benefits, including a TD magazine subscription, access to webcasts and podcasts, free research whitepapers, and the full State of the Industry report.To be eligible, applicants must be enrolled in the equivalent of at least half time at an accredited university or college, or they must be an active ATD chapter student member at the time of applying. Questions about eligibility? Contact Cami Best-Jones at cjones@td.org.

ATD Dissertation Award and Scholarships

Andy Aguiluz, APTD is training manager at Techstars. She helps employees succeed by partnering with and empowering them to design and deliver scalable, adaptable, and collaborative learning and development solutions. Most recently, Andy spent two years providing internal operational support to the accelerator programs by helping to improve systems, processes, training, tool development, and knowledge share. Before that, she spent three years helping establish a few of the accelerator programs.Prior to joining Techstars, she led business case competitions and executive mentorship programs while attending the University of Denver. During her time in Denver, she gained experience with the challenges of scaling companies at RG2 Franchise Consulting, the Daniels Consulting Firm, and Biotrends International. Before earning her master’s, she operated a small aviation company.Andy has a BS in mechanical engineering and an MBA in management consulting with a focus on innovation and entrepreneurship.

Andrea Aguiluz, APTD

State and local governments are at a turning point. As retirements accelerate and job demands shift due to technology, organizations have a critical opportunity to modernize workforce strategies. Nearly half of government employees plan to retire within the next five years, making it more important than ever to build a workforce that can adapt to changing demands.At the same time, public service work is evolving. Many roles now require digital literacy, data analysis, and problem-solving skills, yet only 28 percent of government employees believe they have access to the professional development needed to keep up.Traditional hiring models—focused on degrees and years of experience—are struggling to meet these demands. That’s why more organizations are shifting toward skills-based workforce strategies, which prioritize skills over rigid job descriptions. Research has shown that skills-based hiring expands the talent pool and improves job matching, helping organizations find qualified candidates—including those from nontraditional career paths.Why Skills-Based Strategies Are Gaining MomentumMore state and local governments are adopting skills-based strategies to strengthen their workforce and keep pace with shifting job demands. And it’s a good time to do it. As private sector hiring slows, government organizations have a window of opportunity to attract skilled workers who may not have previously considered public service roles. Removing degree requirements can significantly expand applicant pools, making it easier to find qualified candidates.It’s also a necessary time to act. Artificial intelligence (AI) and automation are reshaping how work gets done, with McKinsey estimating that up to 30 percent of tasks across many occupations could be automated or augmented. This shift highlights the growing need for employees with skills in AI oversight, data analysis, and digital tools—capabilities that will be critical for government organizations to fulfill their missions effectively.From Job-Based Hiring to Skills-Based MobilityFilling vacancies isn’t the only workforce challenge—keeping skilled employees engaged and ensuring institutional knowledge isn’t lost to retirements is just as important. Yet many government organizations struggle to offer clear career growth opportunities beyond traditional promotion tracks, leading employees to seek advancement elsewhere.A skills-based approach to career mobility helps organizations tap into existing talent instead of relying on external hiring for every vacancy. By mapping employees’ skills to future roles and offering structured development pathways, organizations can improve retention, reduce hiring costs, and fill critical roles faster.Closing the Skills GapTo make skills-based hiring and internal mobility successful, organizations must also address gaps in workforce training. Many government employees lack access to upskilling opportunities, making it difficult to keep pace with evolving job demands.Cybersecurity remains a major concern. A 2024 Deloitte-NASCIO study found that only 19 percent of government organizations feel confident in their cybersecurity workforce’s readiness, exposing critical vulnerabilities.Data literacy is another growing need. As organizations rely more on data-driven decision making, they must ensure employees have the training to use analytics and AI tools effectively.Some organizations are responding by expanding access to flexible, self-directed learning. The Denver Public Library, for example, introduced self-paced training programs that allow employees to develop skills in technology, community engagement, and leadership—helping them grow their careers while staying responsive to evolving public service needs.Government organizations will also need to expand learning experiences. To truly close the skills gap, they will need to provide hands-on learning experiences, such as interactive labs and real-world skill-building programs, that ensure employees can apply what they’ve learned in practical settings.The Future of Workforce Agility in GovernmentSkills-based workforce strategies are helping state and local governments become more adaptable, ensuring that hiring, training, and career progression are aligned with evolving workforce needs. By focusing on skills rather than traditional job descriptions, organizations are improving retention, strengthening leadership pipelines, and preparing employees for the challenges ahead.This shift isn’t just about filling vacancies—it’s about building a future-ready workforce that can deliver on the mission of public service, today and in the years to come.

Building Workforce Agility in State and Local Government

Do you know why project managers dread the words “Could you just?”Picture this: You’re a project manager on the verge of wrapping up the final milestone, ready to tackle a small simple change request. After all, your client wants to add just one last “thing” to the training program. This turns out to be an entirely new concept with a cascading effect on the other modules bringing the delivery to a halt.Training managers and stakeholders frequently fall into the trap of adding “just one more module” or “a quick extra skill” to the curriculum. These seemingly minor additions can accumulate rapidly, transforming a focused, efficient training program into an unwieldy behemoth.Scope creep is like a minor home improvement. It starts innocently enough—"Oh, while we’re at it, why don’t we just...”—and before you know it, you’re redoing the plumbing, installing a hot tub, and considering a helipad for the roof.Scope creep is the project equivalent of saying “I’ll just watch one more episode” at 11 p.m. Next thing you know, it’s 3 a.m., you’ve finished the entire series, and you’re contemplating learning Korean to watch the spin-off.So, remember, the next time someone says, “While we’re at it, why don’t we just...”—Keep your antenna up. The Denver International Airport (DIA) case is often cited in project management literature as a cautionary tale about the dangers of unchecked scope expansion. Despite its troubled construction, DIA has since become a successful and vital transportation hub, though the lessons from its construction remain relevant for project managers today.The Denver International Airport project, launched in 1989 to replace Stapleton Airport, was initially budgeted at $1.7 billion and set to open in October 1993. However, poor planning, design flaws, and scope creep caused delays and cost overruns, with the final cost reaching $4.8 billion and the opening delayed to February 28, 1995.This project highlights a key lesson for managers: managing scope creep is vital. Clear objectives, a defined scope, and strict change control are essential to avoid budget overruns, and delays, and ensure project success.The root causes of scope creep in training projects are multifaceted:Unclear initial objectives: Poorly defined goals leave room for interpretation and expansion.Stakeholder pressure: Influential parties may push for additional content to address their specific concerns.Fear of missing out: Anxiety about leaving out potentially valuable information can lead to overinclusion.Lack of change control processes: Without formal procedures for scope modification, changes can slip in unnoticed.The impacts of scope creep extend far beyond mere inconvenience:Diluted focus: As content broadens, the core learning objectives may become obscured.Learner fatigue: Overloaded curricula can overwhelm participants, reducing engagement and retention.Resource strain: Extended timelines and additional materials can strain budgets and personnel.Compromised quality: Hasty additions often lack the refinement of carefully planned content.Delayed implementation: Prolonged development phases can render training outdated before delivery.To combat scope creep in training projects, organizations must adopt proactive measures:Establish clear, measurable objectives at the outset.Implement rigorous change control processes.Prioritize content ruthlessly, focusing on must-have elements.Educate stakeholders on the risks of scope expansion.Consider modular design to allow for future additions without disrupting core content.In project management, scope creep is often seen as a challenge, but it can also drive innovation. Savvy managers leverage stakeholder engagement, evolving needs, and the pursuit of excellence to create value. The key is proactive management: fostering open communication, flexible change control, and a focus on core objectives to balance adaptability and discipline.Recommendations for L&D ManagersUltimately, mastering scope management is not about rigid adherence to initial plans, but about steering projects toward maximum value delivery. As projects grow in complexity, those who navigate the line between beneficial adaptation and scope creep will deliver exceptional results.The future of project management lies not in eliminating scope creep, but in developing the wisdom to discern when changes truly add value and the skills to integrate them seamlessly. In this light, scope creep transforms from a project manager’s nemesis into an opportunity for growth, innovation, and enhanced project outcomes.

Scope Creep: The Allure of “Just One More Thing”

Sally is the chief learning officer for a large well-known bank. She was recently brought in by her CEO to “professionalize” the Learning and Performance function within the company. Sally inherited a very extensive learning measurement system that rigorously cataloged the results of each training course using Likert-Like questions and numerical averaging.As Sally sifts through the data, she notices something curious. Instructors whose smile sheet ratings were consistently low were still teaching, even after several years of poor results. Sally, of course, is thrilled! She’s been mandated to professionalize the learning function and already she’s found a problem she can fix. She makes a plan. She’ll bring her team together to improve—or fire—the low-performing trainers.Brilliant, right? Maybe! It depends on whether Sally’s assumptions are accurate:Instructors who get the best smile sheet ratings will help their learners achieve the best learning results and the best on-the-job performance. Instructors who get the worst smile sheet ratings will produce learners who achieve the worst learning results and the worst on-the-job performance.Interestingly, Sally’s predecessors never thought to correlate their smile sheet ratings with learning results or on-the-job performance. Sally, like most L&D professionals, doesn’t think of doing this either. She just assumes that smile sheet results are related to learning outcomes. Indeed, as an industry, we tend to assume that smile sheets are telling us something important about the successes and failures of our training efforts. Are we right? Is Sally right? And does it really matter, anyway?In 2013, ATD and i4cp teamed up to examine how organizations measure the effectiveness of the learning programs. The research, reported in The Value of Learning: Gauging the Business Impact of Organizational Learning Programs, found that Level 1 smile sheets were by far the most common method of measuring our learning solutions. One implication from these findings is that we, as workplace learning professionals, get most of our feedback from smile sheet data.Consequently, because feedback enables improvement, the validity of smile sheet data is critical. In other words, if we’re not getting good data from our smile sheets, we’re not going to be able to create maximally effective learning.Research on Smile SheetsSo, what does the research say? Are smile sheets effective in giving good feedback? The short answer is No. Two meta-analyses in the scientific literature covering more than 150 research studies found that smile sheets are virtually uncorrelated with learning results (see Further Reading below). Specifically, both meta-analyses found that smile sheets were correlated with learning results with a correlation of r = .09.Statisticians tell us that correlations below r = .30 should be considered weak correlations. Therefore, a correlation of r = .09 is practically no correlation at all! It would be like correlating smartphone usage with hair color.Bottom line: Sally’s assumptions were faulty. Our assumptions, as an industry, have been faulty for decades. We’re all caught in the delusion that smile sheets tell us something important, when in fact they may regularly mislead us.A Smarter Smile SheetWow! What should we do then? Should we throw out our smile sheets? Should we collect data to be polite and then ignore the data? I don’t think so. After thinking about the smile sheet problem for a decade or so, I’ve come to the conclusion that if L&D professionals redesign smile sheets from the ground up—based on the science of learning and guidelines from the measurement field—we can build effective smile sheets.In Performance-Focused Smile Sheets: A Radical Rethinking of a Dangerous Art Form, (more info available at www.SmileSheets.com), I describe how to build a much more effective smile sheet. There are two critical aspects.First, questions should be based on the science of learning. Because we’re asking that our smile sheets tell us about learning, it makes sense to base our smile sheet designs on learning science. Second, we have to do a better job of designing our smile sheet questions. Most of us use Likert-like scales or numerical items, both of which are fundamentally inappropriate for smile sheet use. We also have to help our learners make good smile sheet decisions. According to research from Brown, Roediger, and McDaniel (2014), as well as Kirschner and van Merriënboer (2013), learners don’t always know their own learning. Because of this, asking them questions about their learning may give us faulty information—unless we design our questions to support their smile-sheet decision making. Too many of our questions ask learners to answer questions they are not prepared to answer.Here are some of the major areas that smile sheet questions should target:ability of learners to successfully apply what they learned to their work learners’ full comprehension of what was presented to them learners’ capability to remember what they’ve learned level of motivation that learners will bring to implement what they’ve learned post-training resource that will guide and enable learners to persevere in putting their learning into practice.Most smile sheets do a poor job of targeting these issues, which is unfortunate because it is through these types of research-inspired factors that learning effectiveness can be discerned.Bottom LineMost of our smile sheets are ineffective and provide poor feedback. Fortunately, we can build better ones. Of course, smile sheets will never give us all the information we need. It’s critical that we also measure learning by focusing on learner comprehension, decision making, and memory, as well as measure application by examining the factors and results produced in the way of on-the-job performance.While smile sheets are never enough, most organizations will continue to use them, so we ought to make them as effective as possible. Scientific research makes it clear that our current smile sheet efforts are ineffective. Fortunately, the science of learning and wisdom from the measurement field give us hope for better smile sheets.Like what you read? Join us at the ATD 2016 International Conference & Exposition in Denver, CO, May 22-25 to hear Will Thalheimer speak.Further ReadingAlliger, G. M., Tannenbaum, S. I., Bennett, W., Jr., Traver, H., & Shotland, A. (1997). A meta-analysis of the relations among training criteria. Personnel Psychology, 50(2), 341-358.Brown, P. C., Roediger, H. L. III, & McDaniel, M. A. (2014). Make it stick: The science of successful learning. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.Kirschner, P. A., & van Merriënboer, J. J. G. (2013). Do learners really know best? Urban legends in education. Educational Psychologist, 48(3), 169-183.Sitzmann, T., Brown, K. G., Casper, W. J., Ely, K., & Zimmerman, R. D. (2008). A review and meta-analysis of the nomological network of trainee reactions. Journal of Applied Psychology, 93, 280-295.

Are Smile Sheets Supported by Research?

Gregg Vanourek teaches at the Stockholm School of Entrepreneurship and the Royal Institute of Technology. Previously, he taught at the Euromed School of Management, University of Denver, and Colorado Mountain College. Vanourek is founder of Far Horizon, a training enterprise that connects the realms of leadership, entrepreneurship, and personal development. Before that, he co-founded New Mountain Ventures (an entrepreneurial leadership development company) and served as Senior Vice President of School Development for K12 (an online education company) during its startup years. While at K12, his team launched a number of innovative virtual schools all over the U.S., helping the company become the market leader in the space. Previously, Vanourek helped to launch and served as Vice President for Programs at the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation (an influential education reform foundation) and research fellow at the Hudson Institute (a think tank). Vanourek is coauthor of three influential books: Triple Crown Leadership: Building Excellent, Ethical, and Enduring Organizations (published by McGraw-Hill and a 2012 USA Best Book Awards finalist), Life Entrepreneurs: Ordinary People Creating Extraordinary Lives (Jossey-Bass), and Charter Schools in Action: Renewing Public Education (Princeton University Press). He has written several book chapters and reports, as well as numerous articles for leading journals and media outlets, including Harvard Business Review blogs and Washington Times columns. His writing has been featured in or reviewed by Fast Company, BusinessWeek, U.S. News & World Report, New York Times, Leader to Leader, Publishers Weekly, Entrepreneur, American Management Association, Center for Creative Leadership, and more. Gregg is a featured speaker and trainer on the topics of leadership, entrepreneurship, and personal development. He is a graduate of the Yale School of Management (M.B.A.), London School of Economics and Political Science (M.Sc.), and Claremont McKenna College (B.A.). He serves on the board of the Vail Leadership Institute.

Gregg Vanourek

Jon Bergmann provides flipped learning training consultants to small and large businesses, governments, nonprofit organizations, and schools around the globe. His mission is to teach, share, and implement best practices for creating learner-centric environments that empower trainers to maximize their teaching impact while lowering training costs. By applying flipped learning principles, he has helped clients flip their meetings with considerable success. Jon’s corporate clients include Wella AG (Procter & Gamble), the Association for Continuing Legal Education, Abbvie, Lake Forest Graduate School of Management, and iSchool. In addition, he has co-authored seven books, including Flip Your Classroom: Reach Every Student in Every Class Every Day and Flipped Learning: Gateway to Student Engagement. His radio show on the BAM Radio network gets upwards of 32,000 downloads every month.Jon received the Presidential Award for Excellence for Math and Science Teaching in 2002 and was a finalist for the Brock International Prize for Education in 2014. He currently serves on the advisory board for TED-Education, and holds an MA in instructional technology from the University of Colorado at Denver and a BS in science education from Oregon State University.

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