Three generations of leaders and employees now co-exist in the workplace.

At the most senior levels and across our longest serving employees we see the characteristics of classic post-war baby boomers. Key middle managers and aspiring leaders in the critical talent pool of 30-44 year olds have the ‘crazy mixed up kids’ characteristics of Generation X. And our emerging, and potentially largest, workforce of the future are the ‘MyPod’ generation (Generation Y).

As a result, throughout organisations and departments - and even within teams - we see all three differing, and sometimes conflicting, styles and attitudes. In this potent cocktail of mutual misunderstanding and misalignment - ensuring all employees are highly skilled and motivated to deliver the ‘inspired actions’ Jack Welch describes is possibly one of the most difficult organisational challenges today.

With such a diverse range of employees - it is clear that the rules of ‘engagement‘ concerning training have changed. Long gone are the traditional ‘chalk and talk’ approaches. Training now has to earn the right of its audiences' attention, training solutions need to engage employees in a way that is relevant if they’re to attract their attention. So, today's training solutions need to be based on engagement and persuasion, not information ‘transmission’ and instruction.

The old ‘arms-length’ Ivory Tower approaches to training no longer apply. Today, training teams need to get close to its audience, understand what makes them tick, and what turns them on.