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Dr. Cindy Hill is an Industrial/Organizational Psychologist in the Research Division at ACT. She has been a major contributor to ACT’s WorkKeys system for more than twenty years. Her work has included the recent refresh of the National Career Readiness Credential, a portable, evidence-based credential that certifies the essential skills for workplace success. Her recent research has explored the alignment and “stacking” of credentials through standardized frameworks and the use of technology. Dr. Hill has also spent many years developing and reviewing licensure and certification programs. This includes job analysis, the development of test content outlines, national surveys, data analysis, item writing and review, standard setting, and validating the test scores of off-the-shelf and company-specific tests. As part of ACT’s partnership with the Association for Talent Development, she developed and facilitates their Test Design and Delivery Certificate Program.

Cindy Hill

Gain a systematic approach for developing and administering tests that will meet your organization's needs and follow professional standards. Learn more!

Test Design and Delivery Certificate

August 2018 - TD Magazine

Map out a plan to ensure your test will accurately measure the desired data.

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This advanced-level master facilitator certificate program helps you master all aspects of training delivery. Earn the respected title of ATD Master Trainer®!

This advanced-level certificate program helps you master all aspects of training delivery.  Earn the respected title of ATD Master Trainer. Register today!

 ATD Master Trainer® Program

Enroll in ATD’s Training & Facilitation Certificate course and learn how to master facilitation skills and techniques in hands-on practice sessions.

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Training & Facilitation Certificate

The talent development industry has lost one of its legends. Bob Pike—the trainer’s trainer—passed away October 11.Bob’s illustrious career spanned six decades—he began his training career in 1969. He authored more than 35 books and designed more than 600 training programs in at least 25 countries. His Creative Training Techniques Handbook (now Bob Pike’s Master Trainer Handbook) has sold 330,000 copies.“He was among the early people to talk about getting a seat at the table for the talent development profession,” said Ken Blanchard, co-founder and chief spiritual officer at the Ken Blanchard Companies. “He really felt that we should be part of the party rather than just visitors. That really helped change the field because we are now seen as teammates rather than vendors.”Elaine Biech marveled at his legacy, highlighting his concept of participant-centered learning, his emphasis on measuring the results of training, his six _P_s of preparation for successful program delivery, and his active participation techniques. “Bob’s approach to training focused not just on the process of training but also its outcomes. He emphasized the importance of measuring the impact of training on performance and productivity.”Known as “the trainer’s trainer,” Bob was the second CPLP (now CPTD®) Fellow for his contributions to developing and supporting the designation, a 1981–82 national director and treasurer of ATD (then the American Society for Training and Development), and the recipient of ATD’s 2021 Lifetime Achievement Award.Bob presented 46 times at the ATD International Conference & EXPO—every year since 1977. One year he even presented virtually following surgery.“Bob contributed so much to the ASTD and ATD community during his impressive 50-plus year career, generously sharing content, advice, and expertise with our local chapters and global community for many years,” said ATD President and CEO Tony Bingham. “He was a leader, mentor, and friend to thousands of professionals in talent development. His legacy in the field is deep, and we have all benefited from the expertise he shared.”Over a 35-year period, he built The Bob Pike Group into a large training and performance consulting company. He sold the company in 2013. He was also past director of the National Speakers Association and in 1999 was inducted into its Speakers Hall of Fame.“As a new training professional in the 1990s, his words in his original Creating Training Techniques Handbook jumped off the page and changed my entire worldview on how to facilitate training programs,” noted Cindy Huggett, CPTD, speaker, and author. “From my early book writing days, he was so encouraging, offering assistance and guidance. He demonstrated the meaning of encouragement and elevating others in the profession. Through his actions, he taught me the importance of helping others.”He was a legend to those who knew him, with his colleagues and acquaintances describing him as “a true giant, the original master trainer, an innovative thinker, and a true legend who had a profound impact on the profession.”“Bob Pike is a founding leader in our industry. He is creative and offers techniques easily deployable in any session,” Nancy Langton, learning solutions provider with EdTech Influence, wrote on LinkedIn. “L&D professionals are constantly searching for new approaches, learning from other pros, and aiming to create impactful learning experiences. Kudos to Bob for helping so many people!”Elaine added, “Bob has left a significant legacy through his contributions and innovations. His work has had a lasting impact on the field. Like his legacy of participant-centered learning, we have all benefitted from his approach as he applied it to us as his eager participants. He made each of us the center of the learning he bestowed upon us.”

In Memoriam: Bob Pike

ATD21 started Sunday with a full day of education and networking sessions. Here's a recap of just a few of the many learning opportunities.Dive Into Facilitating Immersive Virtual LearningIn the Sunday Super Session “The Immersive Virtual Classroom: Facilitator Skills for Success,” Cindy Huggett, CPTD, principal consultant for Cindy Huggett Consulting, relayed that 7 percent of respondents in her 2020 State of Virtual Training survey reported using some sort of virtual reality. And based on a poll via the online chat feature for virtual attendees, many—despite little experience—are eager to get their feet wet with the immersive classroom.When people think about the immersive experience, they often think of the technology itself, such as immersion glasses that create a simulated environment. But augmented reality goes beyond that—it is an enhanced reality, for example, where a participant in a Zoom meeting adds a background or makeup to their appearance.Given technology’s prevalence in our personal and professional lives, when are facilitators even needed in an immersive environment? Huggett outlined three situations: when human intervention is required, when there may be a lack of trust with technology, and when learners could benefit from a shared debrief.She called out five facilitator skills in particular that are critical in an immersive virtual classroom:Master the technology: Know it well. “Start playing with it,” she encouraged.Prepare and support learners: This could entail shipping headsets to learners and preparing them for the virtual experience, such as advising them to test technology in advance.Engage with learners: Provide clear, explicit instructions. Huggett relayed a story of when she thought instructions for an activity were clear but the outcome of the exercise proved otherwise.Enhance the virtual presence (voice, visual): Record your voice to hear whether you are expressing enthusiasm, using filler words, or speaking too quickly.Debrief the learning experience: Know how to unpack the session, especially if it may be emotionally charged or intense.To close, Huggett left attendees with this question: How will you begin to upskill yourself or fellow facilitators to begin to use immersive technology?Drive Games With a Global MindsetIf you are facilitating a training session for a global audience, be sure to consider the effect culture can have on participants’ learning experience. Games and activities, for example, are popular tools for fostering engagement, energizing learners, and creating connection in a relatively quick manner.In the Super Session “Games for Global Audiences,” an international panel of learning leaders—David Brown from Nigeria, Deniz Senelt Kalelioglu from Turkey, Claudia “Clao” Salazar from Colombia, Donna Steffey from the US, and Hamza Taqi, MPC from Kuwait—shared insights on how to successfully manage trainings with global audiences.Panelists covered the value that games have in learners’ training experience and emphasized the importance of facilitators having a global mindset. Early in the session, participants looked at the various ways people greet each other, ranging from firm handshakes to bowing to sticking out their tongues. Panelists even discussed best practices for engaging with people from high-context versus low-context cultures.At the crux of this interactive session was engagement and connection—panelists invited attendees to try some activities, which were designed for both in-person and virtual attendees.Throughout all the games demonstrated during the session, winning or losing wasn’t the objective. As one panelist noted during the session, games make it comfortable for people to make mistakes, and when they are comfortable failing, it’s easier for them to learn. Via Pathable, the conference platform, access the highlighted activities in the session’s resources section.Use Disruption to Make Learning LastWhat does weak learning design look like? That’s a question panelist Jon C. Thompson, director of learning experience and innovation at the Coca-Cola Company, posed during the Super Session “Disrupting Design: How Behavioral Science Drives Learning That Lasts.” Attendees responded with “passive,” “content dump,” “boring,” and “overload.” Strong learning design, however, can be described as engaging, tailored, transferable skills, and relevant.In introducing the session, Mary Slaughter, global head of employee experience at Morningstar, shared that audience members would get insight into how to use design thinking to improve business performance—that is, how to think about reconsidering learning design. Janet Ahn, chief behavioral science officer at MindGym, presented a primer on how the brain works, learns, and applies what it has learned. The brain encodes, stores, and recalls information. Learning is attained through associated networks—the stronger the associations, the easier it is to connect or pick up the new piece of information. Applying is about motivation, either intrinsic or extrinsic.The trio then outlined the CLICS (capacity, layering, intrinsic enablers, coherence, social connections) framework, a research-based model that helps maximize learning in the organizational setting. Each component has both learner- and workplace-relevant considerations. For example, Ahn described capacity as cognitive overload—the amount beyond the level of what the short-term memory is capable of storing. Just as instructional designers, subject matter experts, or managers need to be aware of how much information they share with individual learners, Thompson pointed out that there is an organizational consideration. What else do employees within a team or company have going on? If the audience is comprised of tax professionals, for example, trainers probably should avoid a major training program in the March-April time period in the US when individuals are filing their taxes.Ahn advised attendees to think of layering as an additive effect: How does the new skill build on existing knowledge? From an organization standpoint, Thompson called out the way onboarding is designed to first provide background on the company before detailing specifics about an individual’s job so that the new employee can understand their role within the company.Additionally, role modeling and watching others within a team or organization is important to normalizing and reinforcing learning. It is also an aspect where senior leaders can make a critical difference in culture, learning, and well-being.Engagement Is Key to Master FacilitationMore than half of virtual training is as useless as the G in lasagna, said Sardek Love, president and founder of Infinity Consulting and Training Solutions. He based that on his research. He found that more than two-thirds of training professionals say a lot of their virtual training content isn’t helping learners produce better, faster, or more. To help, in his session “3 Master Facilitator Secrets for Delivering High Engaging Virtual Training,” Love covered the top three mistakes that many facilitators make when delivering training, and he proposed practical solutions for overcoming those barriers.Many sessions are too focused on content and constrained by time, he said. Love added that trainers are often change resistant. To foster engagement, he advised trainers to focus the learning on the problem, where the content addresses the challenges participants are facing. Second, drive training with curiosity by continuously engaging participants. And reinforce the training with action, having participants practice the concepts they’ve learned.Love also called attention to storytelling and how master facilitators “create narratives, and they interweave these stories into the training instead of just being stuck on content.” Love then shared four ways that master facilitators can trick learners’ brains into paying attention: delivering content in new ways, doing something unexpected or surprising, challenging the numbers, and presenting old ideas in new ways.Love further discussed the ways in which master facilitators use platform tools, such as chats, polls, training activities, and breakout rooms. While he said that “most trainers are overusing chat and polls,” nearly half say that they don’t use breakout rooms, based on his research. And he called out that as a big missed opportunity. He noted, “If you’re not using breakout rooms in virtual training … you’re not engaging your people.”Think Beyond the ClassroomA major takeaway from Jonathan Halls’ session “Classroom Dilemma: Reimagining the Future Workplace Learning Landscape” was to think outside the box—that is, the training room. While he did not advocate eliminating it entirely, he encouraged attendees to focus on what people need to do rather than thinking in terms of a learning session.He compared trainers to navigators and shared his navigator model, where learning is at the center of the overlapping components of mechanics, ecology, and strategy. Learning mechanics revolve around learners conceptualizing, performing, and mastering a task. Conceptualizing requires the learners to make sense of the world through their memories; the performing entails practice: talking about a skill or concept, solving for it, and simulating the task. That requires days to weeks, certainly outside the scope of a typical classroom. And finally, Hall defined mastering a task as being able to perform the action better than most people, faster, and with fewer mistakes.The ecology involves the outside dynamics that affect learners and how well they will be able to learn: the physiology (emotions, energy, and diet); outlook (mindset, resilience, and motivation); and environment (culture, politics, and physical space).When thinking about strategy, weigh how learners’ experience relates to the organization. What does the company need learners to be able to do? Hall notes that you may be passionate about the topic and want to share everything you know. But from an organizational standpoint, that may not make sense. Halls will conduct a virtual Q&A today from 12:15 to 12:45 p.m. MT.Shoring Up Executive PresenceAmy Glass, president and CEO of BRODYpro, led the high-energy session “Elevate Your Executive Presence: Virtually and In-Person” on Sunday. Early on, she made the case for why executive presence is more important than it’s ever been, especially for people in the training profession. She said that executive presence is about how you act, communicate, and look. Acting the part requires soft skills, such as empathy, warmth, and connection.To help session participants understand what empathy is and is not, Glass showed a short video clip of researcher and bestselling author Brené Brown explaining that “Empathy fuels connection. Sympathy drives disconnection.” Being able to feel the room and understand others’ emotions are skills that are key to connecting with others, Glass noted. She shared some practical pointers on how to demonstrate empathy in daily interactions, such as identifying with the feelings of an individual’s situation even if you haven’t specifically experienced it.Glass also explained how participants could apply the PREP (position; reason; example, explanation, evidence; position) framework as a guide for effective communication. This formula can help people avoid information overload and best handle impromptu conversations on the job. For PREP, state your position; provide a reason; offer an example, explanation, or evidence; and restate the position. During the session, Glass invited all attendees—in person and virtual—to suggest topics she could address using the PREP model in real time to demonstrate its efficacy. She also cautioned them to beware of power robbers—things people do or say that take away from the power of what they’re saying—for example, tag questions, overuse of jargon, and public self-critique.After covering how people with strong executive presence act and communicate, Glass segued to the look and the importance of crafting your virtual image. She reviewed the basics of virtual communication, such as good lighting, using hand gestures, and being eye-level with the camera. ATD21 participants can download Glass’s entire presentation from the resources section of her session in the conference platform. The presentation also includes a QR code to download Leadership Presence: The Influential Intangible, a free e-book Glass co-authored with Majorie Brody.

Reporter's Notebook: Highlights of Sunday's ATD21 Education Sessions

More author chats on groundbreaking topics! Join Cindy Huggett in the ASTD bookstore on Tuesday, May 18th from 7:00-7:45 pm, as she reveals her expert advise on "Virtual Training Basics: A How-To Guide for Classroom Trainers." Cindy will also be featuring her brand new book, Virtual Training Basics. Don't forget to get her John Hancock on your copy!Haven't registered for the conference yet? Pre-registration ends TODAY, May 7th, so do it now! Stay updated on more ICE news and events on the ICE Twitter page.For more information on virtual training, consider attending the session Virtual Training via Web Conferencing at the World Bank Group at the ASTD 2010 International Conference and Exposition.

Cindy Huggett Author Chat May 18 at 2010 ASTD International Conference!

Interview with Jack J. Phillips, Patricia Pulliam Phillips, Cindy Huggett, and Emma Weber--authors of Designing Virtual Learning for Application Impact: 50 Techniques to Ensure Results.

Ensure Virtual Learning Delivers Value Beyond the Classroom

We've focused on the content of The ASTD Leadership Handbook: how to select topics, how to ensure its usefulness, and how to guarantee quality. Let's turn our attention toward the authors of The Handbook.This Special OpportunityWhat's it like to work with the gurus of our profession? Gosh, what can I say? Heady? Exhilarating? Humbling? Daunting? It is for sure all of these.To discuss change with John Kotter in his office at Harvard Square; to question Dave Ulrich about "getting results"; to write a note to Jim Collins; to receive a phone call from Frances Hesselbein; to have Ken Blanchard say "yes" to writing a chapter about ethics and integrity; to catch Bill George between books; to receive the first chapter from Len Goodstein; or to have Jack Zenger respond to an email in less than 12 hours. All of these are electrifying moments of this project-and in my life!I've started reviewing the work of these famous authors, and to say reading their chapters is stimulating is an understatement. Wait until you have an opportunity to read the final product!Working With GurusHow do you manage folks with more important things to do than write a chapter for your book? Jim Kouzes, Bev Kaye, Bill Byham, Cindy McCauley, VADM Lockard, and the other authors-these are busy people with others constantly tugging at them. You need to make it easy for them to give you what you need. Clear guidelines helps. Ensure that they are writing about their specialty. Make the job as easy as falling off a log. Don't ask them to do mundane tasks that publishing requires. Work with their administrative assistants whenever possible for something like turning color figures to black and white. When you receive a booklist with just the books' names, do the research yourself. Don't bother them with the details. Create and maintain a communication plan. Touch base regularly and provide information to them as they need it--not in lengthy guidance at the beginning.How do you appeal to a guru's willingness to work on a project? Build pride in the project. You can do this by ensuring they know how much you want them to be a part of the handbook. For example, I can't imagine having a chapter about change without John Kotter being the author. Can you? I told him just that-and sincerely meant it.In the end, how do you work with a guru group? I think three things are important:Make it easy and fun.Do the mundane for them.Ensure that they are proud to be a part of the project.In the end, editing this handbook is exciting. It is the best job anyone could have! I am honored and delighted to have such an exhilarating opportunity in my career.Next Up: A Sneak Preview of the Table of Contents

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