This is the time of year that our team at Training Industry reflects and takes inventory of the ideas that have impacted our industry over the past 12 months, and a look ahead to the trends that will impact our business moving forward. This year has been an exciting one in many ways. We have seen significant investment continue to pour into our industry, specifically in the form of acquisitions funding and roll-ups and primary funding for the development of education technologies. This is exciting news for learning leaders in that the choices we have available to us when designing a program have never been greater.

With changes in the marketplace come challenges due to the additional complexity in the programs we develop and manage. And as the expectations of the learner continue to evolve, additional pressure is placed on us to provide the development opportunities they need to progress as a valued contributor to the company.

Since we started an annual discussion of trends almost 10 years ago, there have been several organizations join us in publishing what they are seeing in the marketplace. We are happy to see the discussion of trends permeate the various publications that support our industry because it introduces new ideas and perspectives to all of us. Our focus in this edition of Training Industry Magazine is to collect a set of viewpoints that we can use to generate discussions and develop new strategies to improve workplace performance, which is at the heart of who we are at Training Industry. We hope to provide you with the catalyst for these conversations, and will continue to support the discussion through social media, our website and events throughout 2017.

So, as I suggest every year, take a quick read through the various perspectives outlined in this issue, assemble a group of your team members, or even better, some of your peers and find a collection of reasons why these trends don’t apply to your organization. Through this discussion, take a few notes on the trends most difficult to discount and consider how they might change the way you were planning to manage one important initiative launching in 2017.  I think every team should be able to find one useful idea. At least, that’s my perspective.

As always, please feel free to reach out and let us know your thoughts.