Exciting Developments for 2009
Happy New Year! To kick off 2009, the Sandbox has a renewed focus: Helping you recruit great people and inspire them to do amazing work.
Are your people doing their best work everyday? Are they driving the success of your organization? This blog is all about helping you and your people do just that! Here’s what’s new…
1. Free Stuff
Over the last few weeks, the Sandbox Resource Center got a big overhaul.
I’ve added a whole bunch of free stuff, including ebooks, recruiting resources, program development guides, presentation slides and more! Many of the tools are published under the Creative Commons license. That means you can share them, post them on your own website, and in some cases even edit them for your own use. Please see each document’s copyright page for more specific information.
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Podcast: HR Development
Today’s podcast is an introduction to human resource development. I’ll discuss why it’s important and how you can get started right now.
This presentation is inspired by the Lessig Method. There’s no audio, so don’t worry - your speakers aren’t broken.
Download the slides to this podcast (and more) at the Sandbox Resource Center.
How To Use Presentations to Engage Your Audience
Many trainers use PowerPoint (or whatever their presentation software is) as a crutch. They load it up with bullets, filling every conceivable bit of white-space with content.
Often, they read off the screen, but not always. Most of the time, they use the bullets as a guide and “fill in the blanks” between the bullets as they speak. But rarely do trainers and presenters use their presentation as a tool to engage the audience - more often than not, it comes between the trainer and his or her audience.
Garr Reynolds at Presentation Zen ran a post called 10 rules for making good design that highlights some great ways you can start increasing the visual impact of your presentations.
Want to draw the audience in rather than putting up a wall between you and them? Check out Garr’s article. Here are a few teasers to lure you over there:
1. Communicate - don’t decorate.
4. Pick colors on purpose.
5. If you can do it with less, then do it.
6. Negative space is magical - create it, don’t just fill it up!
To read all ten, head over to Presentation Zen.
4-Hour Workweek: What a Book About Quitting Your Job Can Teach You About HR
The 4-Hour Work Week by Tim Ferris is a book about quitting your 9-to-5 to pursue the life you’ve always dreamed of. This isn’t about running your own business - it’s about owning a business that runs itself so you can stop living on a “deferred life plan” and start enjoying your golden years right now.
Is it unrealistic? In many regards, of course it is. But it’s not quite as far out as you might think. I recently read The 4-Hour Workweek and to my surprise, a book about quitting your job had a few things to teach people about talent management.
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Podcast: Pushing Performance
Today’s podcast is a how-to guide on influencing your employees to do the things that will make your organizational successful. You’ll learn what really motivates your employees (tip: it’s not just money). You’ll also learn how to design reward and recognition programs that push performance to the next level.
This is my first attempt at using the Presentation Zen style of presentations, so feedback is very much welcome. Also, if you haven’t yet, subscribe to Manager’s Sandbox to receive a free copy of the Pushing Performance ebook.
Download the slides to this podcast (and more) at the Sandbox Resource Center.