Top 10 Trends in Business and Cultural training

This blog was originally written in 2008.  Revisiting this in 2021 makes for interesting reading.

It's fair to say that HumaNext certainly got it right as everything they mentinoned came to fruition and these topics - particularly cultural competency for leaders, are still trending training topics!

What are the top ten trends in training and human resource development that are expected to dominate in 2008?

HumaNext, have devised their own unique way to arrive at the answer. They don’t use surveys nor ask people what issues they “think” are important. They look for the areas in which companies have invested their money by buying products that addressed these issues in 2007.

HumaNext offer over 700 products, from training programs and videos, to online courses, CDs, off-the-shelf-packages and onsite workshops, and thus are able to develop a very good idea of the kind of topics in which companies and consultants spend most of their money.

The thousands of orders they received in 2007 from customers among leading American corporations, government, educational, and non-profit organizations give us enlightening guides to the shifting trends in the training and HRD business.

They also monitor customers’ inquiries and requests for products that might not yet have developed, which helps gauge future needs and trends. And thirdly they monitor what their large number of affiliate program producers and publishers are planning to introduce in 2008.

Finally, they review published surveys on related topics to benefit from their findings. For example, they confirmed some of their findings with those of a new study from Novations Group Inc. that surveyed more than 2,500 senior HR and learning executives in December 2007 as reported in CLO newsletter.

Based on this multi-faceted approach, here are the top ten training topics and trends that they expect to see in 2008:

1- Leadership / Management Development, and Team Relationships: these areas are old but there is a growing interest in providing leaders at all levels with soft skills that help them lead and inspire their teams and relate to others effectively. Recent survey results confirm the expected growth of these areas.

2- Diversity and Inclusion/ Cultural Competence: Diversity is another old topic that is enjoying a renewed interest, because of the increasing diversity of the workforce, increased immigration, and the need for global skills to meet the needs of globalization.

3- Managing Generational Differences: This sub-area of diversity is becoming a critical topic in its own right. Because of the aging baby-boomers and the increasing number of generations X and Y in the workplace, consultants and managers are seeking training programs to help managers handle generational differences at work.

4- Leadership Communication: Although interest in communication skills training is old and stable, there is a new emphasis on leadership and executive communication that is based on the notion of leadership as a series of critical conversations. Our Critical Conversation training continues to enjoy good reception by various organizations and training departments in off-the-shelf packages, on site training, and certification.

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Photo by Markus Winkler on Unsplash

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