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20^th December 2008

Neon Elephant Award Announcement

Dr. Will Thalheimer, President of Work-Learning Research, announces the winner of the 2008 Neon Elephant Award, given this year to Robert Brinkerhoff for developing the Success Case evaluation method and for advocating that learning professionals play a more “courageous” role in their organizations.

The Neon Elephant Award

The Neon Elephant Award is awarded to a person, team, or organization exemplifying enlightenment, integrity, and innovation in the field of workplace learning and performance. Announced on the day of the winter solstice—the day of the year when the northern hemisphere turns away from darkness toward the light and hope of warmer days to come—the Neon Elephant Award honors those who have truly changed the way we think about the practice of learning and performance improvement. Award winners are selected for demonstrated success in pushing the field forward in significant paradigm-altering ways while maintaining the highest standards of ethics and professionalism.

The Symbolism of “Neon Elephant”

The glow of neon represents enlightenment, illumination, and gravitas. The elephant represents learning, power, strength, and the importance of nurturing the community.

2008 Award Winner – Robert Brinkerhoff

Robert O. Brinkerhoff, EdD, professor emeritus, Western Michigan University is planning his retirement from his full-time work as a principal consultant and partner at Advantage Performance Group, where he has worked since 2005. His clients include Anglo-American Corp., Bank of America, Pitney Bowes, the Federal Aviation Administration, Dell, and the World Bank. He is the author of numerous books, including Courageous Training (with Tim Mooney), Success Case Method, High Impact Learning, and Telling Training's Story.

In addition to his lifetime of work, he is honored this year for the development of the Success-Case Method and for his advocacy that learning professionals play a more “courageous” and integral part in organizational performance. Too many of us play order-taker roles when we should be partners in helping our organization/business get results. Brinkerhoff’s insight that overly-complex methodologies are generally ineffective because they can’t be understood easily by stakeholders is one that more thought leaders should embrace.

The Success Case Method, while it can’t provide a complete picture of the training-impact landscape, is an important tool in any training-evaluation toolkit. It embodies two key insights. First, training doesn’t have to prompt all trainees to utilize training successfully to have a major impact on the organization. If one person implements one insight that nets the organization millions of dollars, the overall impact of the training may hinge on that one result—not the average or median result from all the learners. The second key insight embodied in the Success Case Method is the understanding that we ought to be diagnosing the cause of training failures and then working to fix those failures. By diving into deep case analyses of failure instances, we can uncover obstacles and forces that are limiting training impact. To learn about the Success Case Method, see Brinkerhoff’s book “Telling Training’s Story: Evaluation Made Simple, Credible, and Effective.”

Brinkerhoff’s latest book, entitled “Courageous Training: Bold Actions for Business Results,” and written with Tim Mooney, build’s on Brinkerhoff’s years of experience in evaluating learning. He has seen how training succeeds and how it fails. He uses wisdom gained from these evaluations to lay out a comprehensive and practical process for going from needs-identification to results. Mooney and Brinkerhoff’s book challenges us as learning professionals to go outside our comfort zones to make true performance impacts. It is an important book in the mold of Wick, Pollock, Jefferson, and Flanagan’s “Six Disciplines of Breakthrough Learning.”

Selection Methodology

The award is based purely on merit and the criteria detailed above. Proposals are not accepted, nor are any entrance fees solicited or accepted. While advice on the selection may be sought from industry thought leaders, Dr. Will Thalheimer of Work-Learning Research is the final arbiter. Awards will only be made in years when exceptional contributions to the workplace learning and performance field are apparent.

Previous Winners

The 2007 Neon Elephant Award was awarded to Sharon Shrock and Bill Coscarelli for advocating against the use of memorization-level questions in learning measurement and for the use of authentic assessment items, including scenario-based questions, simulations, and real-world skills tests. See www.work-learning.com/neon_elephant_2007.htm.

The 2006 Neon Elephant Award was awarded to Cal Wick of the Fort Hill Company for his work developing methodologies and software to support learning transfer. See www.work-learning.com/neon_elephant_2006.htm.

Will Thalheimer and Work-Learning Research

Will Thalheimer is a learning expert, researcher, instructional designer, business leader, speaker, and writer. Dr. Thalheimer has worked in the learning-and-performance field since 1985.

He founded Work-Learning Research in 1998 to bridge the gap between research and practice, to compile research on learning, and disseminate research findings to help chief learning officers, learning executives, training managers, instructional designers, e-learning developers, trainers, and performance consultants build more effective learning-and-performance interventions and environments.

His clients have included giant multinationals, e-learning companies, government agencies, and institutions of higher learning. His research and writings have led the field in providing practical research-based recommendations through his online publications (www.work-learning.com/catalog),  published articles, and his industry-leading blog (www.willatworklearning.com).  

Dr. Thalheimer speaks regularly at national and international conferences. His conference presentations always receive numerous evaluation-sheet comments like the following: “This was one of the best presentations I attended—solid information delivered in a style that helped me learn.”

Will holds a BA from the Pennsylvania State University, an MBA from Drexel University, and a PhD in Educational Psychology: Human Learning and Cognition from Columbia University.

Contact Information for Will Thalheimer, President, Work-Learning Research, Inc. 

Phone:             617-666-9637
Email:              click here

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