In the next few weeks a few members of the Pathways Training and eLearning team will be speaking at a conference hosted by the Ontario Professional Planners Institute. At the conference, we will be facilitating engaging sessions on a variety of topics which I have listed below, along with a brief summary. While the focus of the Pathways Training and eLearning team tends to be more on the eLearning side of the training business, this conference is an excellent reminder of wha

Last week I started a conversation around a training program I regularly facilitate titled “Managing People and Yourself”. At Pathways Training and eLearning,, we offer a full suite of leadership training programs through a variety of training opportunities including in class training, one on one coaching and mentoring, video blogs and of course through interactive eLearning training. This course in particular is intended for senior leaders and managers within an organizat

Recently I was shopping at a local department store when I came across something I thought was a bit out of the ordinary. A man who looked to be in his late 40’s, early 50’s, was admiring himself in a full-length mirror, swiveling his hips left and right in what I assume was an attempt to determine the fit of the pair of Blue Jeans he had on. What I thought was a bit odd was the fact the jeans looked so tight I can’t believe the gentleman had any blood flowing below the wa

Earlier in my career, I had a boss who had a somewhat unique way of responding whenever he (or his team) was asked to take on a training & development project that was outside of the regular technical development we usually focused on. It did not matter the size of the project or how many resources would be required or for how long, his first question was always the same… “What problem are you trying to solve”? Now before anyone pulls an optical muscle rolling their eye

Of the many projects we work on at Pathways, one that continues to provide unique challenges and opportunities is a new system launch initiative for which we will be developing and delivering all of the training. (eLearning, ILT, job aids, video, etc.…). This training will be provided to employees all over Canada in each province so while there have been a few unique challenges as I mentioned above, overall it has been exciting! After several weeks of conferences, focus gr

Two weeks ago, I provided an introduction as part of a review of some of the exciting projects we worked on in 2016, so for the next few weeks I am going to go in to a bit more detail, with the focus this week on a project that involved eLearning, facilitation and one on one coaching. One of our clients is a luxury automotive company that, while they are already an industry leader when it comes to the “car buying” journey, continue to look for ways they can improve the custom

Recently I was asked a question by a client that I think I a god topic of discussion…and that is, how does one determine when to use eLearning versus in class, instructor led sessions? In the first part of the discussion last week we talked about the cost and environmental implications of each modality. This week I would like to briefly discuss other factors such as considering the learning objectives and available resources. When thinking of the content, ask yourself this…

Recently I was asked a question by a client that I think I a god topic of discussion…and that is, how does one determine when to use eLearning versus in class, instructor led sessions? In some instances, making the determination between using eLearning or instructor led training is simple, and often done for you before development starts. For example, consider geographic location of the intended audience. If the material you are developing is intended for a national or even

In 1992 the novel “The Positronic Man” was released. Based on stories written by legendary scholar and author Isaac Asimov, the story is about a household robot named Andrew that lives with the family it serves. Over time Andrew, in a quest to become the first “free” robot and ultimately more human than machine, starts to replace its own robot parts with organic material. Considering the story was based on work by one of the greatest science fiction writers of all time,

As we progress through the 21st century I continually marvel at the technological advances that have been introduced and continue to emerge at a rapid rate. Just in the past few years we have seen cars that can park themselves, a fridge that can tell you when you need to buy milk, a phone that can lock your door when you are a thousand kilometers’ away, robots that can clean your floors and drones filling our skies that are quite literately flying where no man has flown befo

During a recent trip to work on the commuter train I was made the unwilling participant in a conversation between two young professionals (one male, one female) who, based on the topic of their discussion, worked for a downtown law firm. The conversation went something like this: (Note, names have been changed) Male…”Can you believe that, like, Mr. Robards wants me to, like, interview his client before their court date Friday? When he told me I was all like, wow, for sure, no