Expert to Challenge Poor Training Objectives on Podcast

March 13, 2012 - PRLog -- Glenn Hughes, founder of SMART as Hell,  will appear on "Robert Thompson's Thought Grenades" on March 19th to share his new research regarding training objectives. This study, conducted on 20 of the world's leading training companies, discovered that more than 80% of the surveyed objectives were too vague to produce repeatable results.

Using the SMARTometer, a tool for quantifying the effectiveness of a goal, Hughes measured more than 200 objectives. The objectives consistently exhibited four major flaws, according to Hughes. First, the objectives contained ambiguous words, which cause confusion for participants and their managers. Second, the objectives lacked a clear definition of when the task or skill was completed. Third, many objectives were poorly connected to the overall theme of the training. Finally, many objectives were not written in a manner that will create significant change for the participant or the organization.

"Thought Grenades", a weekly podcast hosted by author Robert H. Thompson at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/robert_thompson, will host Glenn Hughes at 10:00 AM on March 19th to discuss the impact of poor training objectives on organizations. Listeners will be invited to call in and share their goals for analysis.

"We coach a lot of individuals and look at many goals that are submitted to us at http://www.smartashell.com," said Hughes. "We consistently see that weak objectives cause frustration and misalignment for participants, trainers, and managers. When you look at the amount of money spent on training annually, it's easy to see that misalignment can result in lost training investment and missed opportunities."

Hughes, who has presented his goals research at major conferences, including ASTD (American Society for Training and Development) and ISPI (International Society for Performance Improvement), urges everyone involved in training to heed his core principle, "When your goals aren't smart; your results probably aren't."

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SMART as Hell creates high performance tools for individuals and companies working in competitive environments. Using tools like the SMARTometer - which enables anyone to assess and write goals that create breakthrough results - SMART as Hell helps organizations move from smart to SMART as Hell.